V 
»rf 

V 


LIBRARY 


OF  TlTfe     -^r  ' 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA" 


Class 


LABOR 

IN 

EUROPE  AND  AMERICA 


BY 


SAMUEL    GOMPERS 

PRESIDENT  OF 
THE  AMERICAN  FEDERATION  OF  LABOR 


PERSONAL  OBSERVATIONS  FROM 
AN  AMERICAN  VIEWPOINT  OF  LIFE 
AND  CONDITIONS  OF  WORKING 
MEN  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN,  FRANCE. 
HOLLAND.  GERMANY.  ITALY.  ETC. 


HARPER  6-  BROTHERS  PUBLISHERS 

NEW  YORK  AND  LONDON 

M  C  M  X 


Copyright,  1910,  by  HARPER  &  BROTHERS 

All  rights  reserved 


Published  May,  1910. 
Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America 


CONTENTS 

>AGB 

BY  WAY  OF  PREFACE v 

THE  UNDERWORLD  OF  AN  OCEAN   STEAMER i 

SH  LABOR — IN  PARLIAMENT,  FACTORY    AND  SLUM    .  12 

^A  WEEK  IN  LONDON 27 

FRANCE — ITS  MANY  PARTIES  AND  MOVEMENTS     ....  45 

BRUSSELS,  ANTWERP,  AMSTERDAM,  ETC 59 

THE  REMARKABLE  GROWTH  OF  TRADE-UNIONISM  IN  GER- 
MANY       71 

THE  REAL  INSPIRATION  TO-DAY  IN  PILSEN 8r 

THE  BUDAPEST  HOD-CARRIER  AND  HER  FELLOW-LABORERS  .  92 

MUNICH  A  MODEL  TRADE-UNION  CENTER 105 

THE  Swiss  LABOR  MOVEMENT — A  DAY  IN  COLOGNE.     .     .  118 
THE.  PARIS  CONGRESS  OF  THE  INTERNATIONAL  SECRE- 
TARIAT    129 

T  THE  BRITISH  TRADE-UNION  CONGRESS  AT  IPSWICH  .     .     .  144 

THE  AWAKENING  IN  ITALY 160 

OUR  ITALIAN  RELATIVES  COME  TO  STAY 172 

GENOA  AND  TURIN — A  DAY'S  WORK  IN  EACH      ....  185 

PLAIN  WATER  AND  PURE  AIR  AT  A  PREMIUM      ....  197 

.^THE  OPPRESSED  MASSES  IN  EUROPE 210 

•^•WAGES  AND  COST  OF  LIVING 222 

J-€ONDITIONS  IN  EUROPE  IMPROVING 236 

-UNIONISM  IN  THE  VARIOUS  NATIONS 249 

NUISANCES  OF  EUROPEAN  TRAVEL 261 

AND  NEW  WORLD  CONTRASTS 274 


226456 


BY  WAY  OF  PREFACE 

How  I  came  to  make  this  trip  to  Europe  is  ex- 
plained in  the  following  passage  of  my  report  as 
President  to  the  annual  convention  of  the  American 
Federation  of  Labor  held  in  Toronto,  November, 
8-20,  1909: 

"For  two  succeeding  conventions  the  fraternal  dele- 
gates from  the  British  Trade  Union  Congress,  on  behalf 
of  their  movement,  extended  an  invitation  to  me  to  visit 
their  congress  and  make  an  investigation  of  labor  condi- 
tions in  England.  We  had  some  correspondence  with  the 
International  Secretariat  relative  to  participation  in  the 
International  Trade  Union  Conference.  Because  of  the 
pending  elections  of  1908,  I  requested  the  convention  of 
1907  not  to  direct  me  to  accept  the  invitation. 

"At  the  Denver  Convention  in  1908  one  of  the  com- 
mittees took  cognizance  of  the  matter  and  presented  the 
following  report,  which  was  unanimously  adopted  by  a 
rising  vote  of  the  convention: 

" '  Your  committee  recommends  the  indorsement  of  what 
the  president  has  to  say  under  this  heading,  and  expresses 
the  hope  that  the  interchange  of  fraternal  visits  may  be 
continued  and  extended.  We  therefore  recommend  that 
the  convention  concur  in  the  recommendation  made  by 
the  Executive  Council  to  the  effect  that  a  representative 

v 


BY    WAY    OF    PREFACE 

of  the  American  Federation  of  Labor  attend  the  next  con- 
vention of  the  International  Conference  of  Trade  Unions, 
which  will  meet  shortly  after  the  close  of  the  British 
Trades  Union  Congress,  and  having  in  mind  the  report 
made  by  the  fraternal  delegates  to  the  British  Trades 
Union  Congress,  we  recommend  that  the  convention  con- 
cur in  the  request  made  to  send  Mr.  Gompers  as  our 
special  representative  to  the  British  Trades  Union  Con- 
gress. We  further  recommend  that  he  be  instructed  to 
attend  the  International  Congress  of  Trade  Unions,  and 
that  he  visit  such  other  countries  as  the  Executive 
Council  may  deem  advisable.' 

"The  Executive  Council  authorized  me  to  visit  several 
countries  in  Europe  for  study  and  rendering  such  assist- 
ance as  might  be  mutually  helpful  to  the  workers  every- 
where. The  resolution  just  quoted  indicates  that  there 
was  a  misapprehension  upon  our  part  as  to  when  the  Inter- 
national Trade  Union  Conference  was  to  be  held.  How- 
ever, the  International  Secretary,  Mr.  Carl  Legien,  of 
Berlin,  when  informed  that  I  had  been  authorized  to  at- 
tend the  conference,  consulted  by  correspondence  with  the 
officers  of  the  trade  unions  of  the  various  countries,  and 
they  voted  to  hold  the  Congress  in  Paris,  1909,  instead  of 
in  Stockholm,  1910,  as  had  been  previously  resolved. 

"I  also  received  an  invitation  from  the  officers  of  the 
General  Federation  of  Trade  Unions  of  Great  Britain  to 
attend  their  annual  convention  at  Blackpool,  England. 
A  number  of  invitations  were  extended  to  me  from  repre- 
sentative labor  men  and  government  officials  to  visit  their 
respective  cities  and  countries. 

"  In  the  course  of  the  tour  in  Europe,  taken  in  obedience 
to  your  mandate,  I  made  studies  of  the  labor  movement 
and  the  conditions  of  the  wage-workers  in  the  following 
places : 

vi 


BY    WAY    OF    PREFACE 

"  United  Kingdom — Liverpool,  Dublin,  Blackpool,  Man- 
chester, London,  and  Ipswich;  France — Calais  and  Paris; 
Belgium — Brussels  and  Antwerp;  Holland — Amsterdam; 
Germany — Hamburg,  Berlin,  Munich,  and  Cologne;  Bo- 
hemia— Prague  and  Pilsen ;  Austria — Vienna ;  Hungary — 
Budapest;  Italy — Milan,  Rome,  Naples,  Genoa,  and 
Turin;  Switzerland — Berne  and  Basle.  Brief  visits  were 
made  to  other  cities — The  Hague,  Bremen,  Dresden, 
Verona,  Venice,  Mayence — sufficient  to  widen  to  some  ex- 
tent the  general  field  of  observation. 

"  The  more  important  of  the  gatherings  attended  were : 
(i)  the  tenth  annual  general  meeting  of  the  General 
Federation  of  British  Trade  Unions  held  at  Blackpool, 
July,  i,  2;  (2)  the  sixth  conference  of  the  International 
Secretariat  of  Trade  Unions  held  at  Paris,  August  30-31, 
and  September  i ;  (3)  the  forty-second  annual  British 
Trade  Union  Congress  held  at  Ipswich,  England,  Sep- 
tember 6-1 1.  Special  central  labor  committee  meetings 
were  attended  in  a  number  of  cities  visited,  besides  labor 
addresses  which  were  made  on  a  number  of  occasions.  In 
all  the  places  visited,  both  the  labor  and  the  general 
news  press  gave  much  space  to  the  action  of  the  American 
unions  in  sending  a  delegate  on  a  general  mission  to 
Europe." 

The  spirit  in  which  I  looked  upon  the  Old  World 
in  my  journey,  and  some  of  the  broad  and  deep  and 
lasting  impressions  made  upon  me  when  looking 
back  over  my  weeks  of  hurried  travelling,  are  re- 
flected in  an  address  I  was  called  on  to  make  in  New 
York  soon  after  my  return.  In  part,  I  then  said: 

"  The  United  States  is,  both  through  fortuitous  circum- 
stances and  its  civic  and  industrial  development,  in  the 

vii 


BY    WAY    OF    PREFACE 

lead  of  the  world.  Indisputably  our  people  do  not  stand 
under  the  dreaded  shadow  of  war,  which  is  the  case  con- 
stantly in  the  countries  having  large  standing  armies, 
with  aristocracies  of  officers  associated  with  the  classes 
to  whom  war  might  be  financially  or  politically  profitable. 
The  incessant  preparations  for  war  and  the  ever-present 
possibilities  of  war  in  Europe  only  result  in  retarding 
human  progress.  The  burden  of  standing  armies  es- 
pecially falls  upon  the  wage-earners. 

"We  have  within  our  borders  the  largest  area  of  free 
trade  in  the  civilized  world.  The  continual  costly  inter- 
ruptions to  commerce  by  the  tariff  walls  that  sub-divide 
Europe;  the  limitations  of  tariff  systems  within  the 
boundaries  of  cities  in  the  same  country,  as  well  as  the 
boundaries  of  each  country,  to  the  consequent  detri- 
mental effects  upon  the  production  of  farm  and  factory, 
entail  national  losses  not  incurred  by  us  in  anything  like 
the  same  degree.  The  scores  of  languages  spoken  on  the 
Continent  of  Europe  are  obviously  a  hindrance  to  economic 
and  general  intellectual  development.  Where  a  com- 
mercial man  in  Europe  spends  years  of  his  youth  in  the 
quiet  of  schools  acquiring  perhaps  three  foreign  languages 
under  the  delusion  that  it  is  education,  energetic  young 
America  goes  to  work,  moves  about  in  our  country,  picks 
up  the  necessary  qualifications  for  several  callings,  and 
either  as  journeyman  or  in  any  other  position  takes  his 
place  among  the  big  machines,  or  in  the  complicated 
organization  of  a  large  industry,  and  helps  turn  out  a 
product  the  cost  of  which  is  the  lowest  in  the  world. 

"In  no  European  country  are  our  common  schools 
equalled  in  their  opportunities  for  education,  in  their 
inexpensiveness  to  the  scholars,  in  their  quality  as  a 
nursery  of  wholesome  manly  and  womanly  sentiment. 
Comparing  the  railway  systems  of  Europe  with  those  of 

viii 


BY    WAY   OF    PREFACE 

America,  the  traveller  is  obliged  to  look  downward  and 
backward,  for  in  that  respect  Europe  is  half  a  century 
behind  time.  The  product  of  the  American  press,  taken 
in  its  wider  scope,  its  magazines,  its  newspapers,  its  books, 
is  a  marvel  to  Europeans  in  output  and  cheapness  of  price, 
as  well  as  in  richness  of  interest  to  all  members  of  society. 

"  Not  the  least  difference  by  far  lies  in  the  rejection 
by  us  of  the  idea  of  caste.  We  have  innumerable  social 
circles,  but  none  are  secure  in  hereditary  titles  or  other 
settled  exclusive  privileges  by  which  they  can  perma- 
nently take  precedence  of  the  people  in  other  circles. 

"  We  have  done  with  kings  and  czars  and  nobles.  Our 
heroes  are  men  and  women.  In  every  public  gathering 
of  our  citizens  the  great  majority  present  rejoice  that 
the  hard  work  of  their  forefathers  helped  to  build  up  this 
democratic  goverment.  It  is  this  democratic  sentiment 
that  makes  our  republic  possible  and  progressive,  and 
that  regards  the  relation  of  our  people  to  the  laws  as 
equals.  We  may  be  unequal  in  physique,  in  mental  gifts, 
in  acquirements,  and  character,  but  the  insistence  is 
among  us.  I  repeat — before  the  law  we  are  equals. 

"  In  Europe  the  higher  orders  of  caste,  with  family 
prerogatives  and  privileges  of  property  and  in  law,  form 
a  political  power  and  assure  a  social  standing  which 
democracies  deny.  In  America  also  the  full  scope  of 
political  rights  is  recognized  in  our  fundamental  legal 
principles,  and  commonly  in  their  practice.  These  are 
the  right  of  choice  by  us  of  lawmakers  and  administrators, 
the  rights  of  petition,  of  assembly,  of  freedom  of  thought 
and  of  religion,  of  free  speech  and  a  free  press.  Provision 
exists  for  a  test  under  our  Constitution  of  every  one  of 
these  rights,  as  they  may  not  yet  be  completely  defined 
in  every  aspect  of  our  rapidly  developing  industrial  so- 
ciety. 

sz 


BY   WAY    OF    PREFACE 

"In  the  clash  of  interests  it  may  become  the  duty  of 
some  of  the  standard-bearers  of  certain  groups  of  our 
citizens  to  set  out  to  ascertain  the  truth  with  respect  to 
what  they  and  their  fellow-members  believe  to  be  the 
rights  of  those  groups  under  the  law  and  our  Constitution, 
and  if  they  act  under  the  advice  of  men  who  in  conse- 
quence of  their  legal  training,  probity,  and  character 
have  won  the  respect  of  the  nation,  and  especially  if  they 
find  division  of  opinion  upon  the  questions  at  issue  among 
the  judges  upon  the  bench,  these  standard-bearers  have 
no  choice  but  to  state  and  to  restate  their  opinions,  re- 
spectfully, yet  firmly,  and  even  spiritedly,  to  their  fellow- 
citizens,  and  to  carry  the  issue  on  to  the  court  of  last 
resort.  We  protest  against  the  conception  that  a  law  is 
broken  until  it  is  finally  and  fully  decided  what  is  the 
law. 

"Those  who  contribute  to  making  the  law  clear,  defi- 
nite, and  settled  perform  a  public  service,  and  in  the 
mean  time  if  the  clamor  and  misrepresentation  of  op- 
ponents put  them  in  a  false  position  before  the  general 
public,  they  must  wait  in  patience  and  fortitude  until 
the  day  when  the  nation  has  spoken  the  last  word,  either 
through  the  highest  judicial  tribunal,  where  bias  or  prej- 
udice or  misconception  is  not  to  be  expected,  or  through 
a  change  by  legislation  affecting  the  points  at  issue. 

"In  Europe  the  germ  of  a  great  awakening  is  evident 
on  all  hands.  Much  is  going  on  there  among  the  nations 
which  will  contribute  to  their  own  and  our  higher  attain- 
ment. Industry,  commerce,  the  means  of  transmitting 
information  and  enlightenment,  and  the  intermingling  of 
peoples  coming  from  their  country  to  ours,  and  moving 
from  one  European  land  to  another,  are  making  and  will 
continue  to  make  a  broader  and  deeper  fraternity  than 
has  ever  been  brought  about  in  the  history  of  man.  As 


BY    WAY    OF    PREFACE 

for  our  own  people,  the  men  of  labor  have  always  stood 
for  home  and  country.  They  have  done  their  share  in 
bearing  the  burden  and  doing  yeoman  service  in  defence 
of  liberty  and  justice.  In  return  they  ask  for  and  insist 
upon  that  justice,  that  equality  before  the  law  without 
which  a  republican  form  of  government  is  impossible. 
Organized  labor  is  in  accord  with  the  fundamental  prin- 
ciple of  the  Declaration  of  Independence — that  all  men 
are  entitled  to  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness." 


LABOR    IN    EUROPE    AND 
AMERICA 


LABOR  IN 
EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

THE     UNDERWORLD     OF    AN     OCEAN    STEAMER 

LIVERPOOL,  July  i,  1909. 

SAILING  from  New  York  Saturday,  June  19,  the 
Baltic  brought  us  to  Liverpool  Sunday,  the  27th. 
A  smooth  sea,  sunshine  in  daytime,  moonlight  at 
night,  very  nearly  record  runs  of  the  ship  for  every 
twenty-four  hours— these  were  the  transit  features  of 
the  voyage.  A  sociable  and  democratic  company  of 
about  four  hundred  passengers,  little  overdressing  or 
other  vain  show,  dancing  evenings  on  the  deck  for  the 
young  folk,  the  ''solution"  of  every  form  of  commer- 
cial, international,  or  labor  problem  in  the  smoking- 
room  parliament — these  were  the  social  features  of  the 
first-cabin  group.  No  thrilling  incidents  occurred; 
no  icebergs  were  seen;  no  collisions  threatened;  no 
scandals  tried  in  the  "whispering  courts";  nothing 
was  to  be  observed  more  remarkable  than  the  reading 
of  the  Sunday  services  of  the  Church  of  England  by 
the  purser  in  the  main  saloon. 


k:lN:  &UROPE    AND    AMERICA 

As  my  mission  to  Europe  is  largely  for  the  purpose 
of  making  what  observations  of  working  -  class  con- 
ditions the  time  of  my  visit  permits,  I  wrote  to  the 
captain  of  the  Baltic  asking  permission  to  go  over 
the  vessel  to  see  how  her  wage- workers  fared.  In 
reply  he  sent  a  very  courteously  delivered  verbal 
message  by  the  purser  to  the  effect  that  the  latter 
official  would  at  any  time  place  himself  at  my  service 
for  a  visit  of  inspection.  Accordingly,  having  made 
an  appointment  at  a  certain  hour  with  the  purser, 
I  waited  on  him  at  his  office,  to  be  told  that,  as  his 
time  was  almost  fully  taken  up  by  his  engagements, 
he  could  devote  but  twenty  minutes  to  the  inspection ; 
but  if  I  preferred  it  he  would  send  with  me  as  a 
substitute  one  of  the  stewards.  With  a  steward, 
therefore,  and  an  American  companion,  I  went  the 
usual  rounds  of  those  parts  of  the  vessel  which  are 
shown  to  favored  first-class  passengers.  As  we  passed 
along,  the  guide  glibly  recited  his  well-conned  lesson 
as  to  the  vessel's  wondrous  bigness  and  the  marvels 
of  its  operation.  All  of  which  was  admirable,  indeed, 
as  befitted  a  transporting  machine  designed  to  carry 
with  safety  a  population  equal  to  that  of  a  considera- 
ble village. 

The  Baltic  is  certificated  by  the  British  and  Ameri- 
can maritime  authorities  to  carry  426  first-class  passen- 
gers, 420  second,  and  1195  third,  and  a  crew  of  370; 
in  all,  2411  "souls,"  as  the  expression  is  among  sea- 
men. I  am  reliably  informed  that,  despite  this  limit 
of  passengers  and  crew,  the  Baltic,  as  well  as  other 
steamers  bound  for  the  port  of  New  York,  frequently 


UNDERWORLD   OF   AN    OCEAN    STEAMER 

carry  over  2000  third-class  passengers.  Our  guide, 
the  steward,  showed  us  the  various  pantries  and 
kitchens  for  each  class,  and  the  bakeshop  where  the 
bread  is  made  to  fill  the  "souls"  of  all  classes.  Rather 
rapidly  he  walked  us  through  the  second-class  lounge 
and  smoke  room,  through  the  steerage  quarters,  and 
to  the  landing  at  the  top  of  steep  and  narrow  ladder- 
like  iron  stairways  that  led  to  an  infernally  hot  place 
far  below,  judging  from  the  fierce  waves  of  heat  that 
rose  and  enveloped  us  where  we  stood.  "Visitors 
never  go  down  there,"  said  our  guide;  "it's  too  hot." 
And  he  led  us  away  quickly — so  quickly  and  deter- 
minedly that  to  both  my  American  friend  and  myself 
his  act  signified  and  commanded  "No  admission." 

I  asked  where  the  sailormen  were  lodged.  "In 
the  fo'k'sel,"  he  replied;  "but  visitors  never  go  there. 
The  sailors  work  four-hour  watches,  so  the  fo'k'sel 
always  has  a  lot  of  chaps  in  it  asleep,  and  visitors 
might  wake  'em  up."  This  explanation  seemed  to 
voice  also  our  guide's  pity  for  the  poor  sailors;  by 
making  it  he  successfully  kept  us  out  of  the  fore- 
castle. And  in  another  moment  he  had  us  back 
at  the  first-class  companionway,  and  was  bidding  us 
good-bye — with  thanks. 

Well,  of  course,  not  being  an  official  inspector,  I 
had  seen  all  parts  of  the  ship  to  which  one  might 
penetrate  whose  relations  to  the  company  were  but 
those  of  a  temporary  patron.  I  had  been  treated 
most  politely ;  but  when  back  in  my  steamer-chair  I 
found  myself  musing  on  the  probably  somewhat 
similar  superficial  character  on  occasions  of  what 

3 


LABOR    IN    EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

constitutes  "investigations.'*  The  way  to  truth  is 
often  blocked  by  polite  attentions. 

However,  by  dint  of  questioning,  a  glimpse  at  the 
life  of  the  stewards  was  obtained  and  their  wage  scale 
learned,  and  besides  we  managed  to  see  the  steerage. 
The  stewards  on  the  Baltic,  as  on  all  the  European 
transatlantic  liners,  receive  £3  ($15)  per  round  trip, 
and  make  at  most  twelve  trips  a  year;  that  is, 
they  receive  in  wages  less  than  $200  a  year.  What 
the  companies  fail  to  pay  the  stewards  in  wages  the 
passengers  are  by  force  of  circumstances  required  to 
make  up  in  "tips."  Little  wonder  that  the  stewards 
faithfully  "work"  their  charges  for  the  "tips"! 

In  maintaining,  as  one  of  their  firmest  institutions, 
the  "tipping"  system,  the  steamship  companies  mani- 
fest a  shrewd  perception  of  their  own  interests.  Tip- 
takers  rarely,  if  ever,  strike.  Every  eager  tip-seeker 
studies  the  short  and  sure  route  to  the  shilling  or  the 
pound  awaiting  his  quest  in  the  liberal  passenger's 
pocket.  The  tipped  servant's  vocabulary  of  lip- 
gratitude,  his  gestures  of  obsequiousness,  his  methods 
of  forcing  upon  his  intended  victim  a  series  of  subtle 
and  unnecessary  attentions,  his  habitual  air  of  pro- 
found deference — what  is  all  this  but  the  practice  of 
a  profession  in  which  the  most  successful  need  have 
the  least  heart  or  manliness  ?  Is  it  not  an  unhappy 
if  not  degrading  occupation,  from  which  the  great 
majority  following  it  would  gladly  escape?  From 
my  own  investigations  I  have  no  hesitancy  in  an- 
swering the  question  in  the  affirmative.  And  the 
tip-takers  may — nay,  will — become  organized  in  the 

4 


UNDERWORLD   OF   AN    OCEAN    STEAMER 

protective  fold  of  the  trade-union  movement.  The 
time  will  surely  come  when,  as  is  already  the  case  in 
certain  English  systems  of  restaurants,  the  signs  will 
go  up  in  ocean  steamships — ' '  No  tips  allowed !"  Then 
will  the  relations  between  passenger  and  steward  be 
those  worthy  of  man  to  man,  each  honoring  his  own 
position  and  the  walk  in  life  of  the  other,  and  each 
dealing  with  the  other  without  deceit — a  relationship 
which,  though  not  impossible,  is  difficult  now. 

Meantime  the  steamship  companies  make  a  pretty 
penny  out  of  the  stewards'  tips ;  for  it  is  not  to  be 
forgotten  that  the  passengers'  tips  go  really,  not  to 
the  steward,  but  to  the  treasury  of  the  line,  which  is 
relieved  of  paying  him  his  wages.  With,  say,  five 
hundred  passengers,  first  and  second  class,  each  on 
the  average  giving  $10  for  tips  on  a  trip,  $5000  is 
added  to  the  dividends  of  the  stock-holders.  And 
that  worm,  the  passenger,  has  never  yet  turned! 
To  add  to  this,  there  is  deducted  from  the  $15  per 
month  paid  to  the  stewards  one  shilling  and  nine- 
pence  (forty- three  cents)  for  "breakage,"  and  this 
deduction  is  made  every  month  whether  anything  is 
broken  or  not.  In  Liverpool,  one  of  the  union  men 
not  only  confirmed  this  fact,  but  added:  "Yes,  it  is 
true;  and  the  stewards  seldom  break  anything.  In- 
deed, they  pay  for  and  ought  to  own,  not  only  the 
glass  and  crockery  of  the  ships,  but  also  the  silver- 
ware." Not  a  bad  stroke  of  business  this,  requiring 
less  skill  than  the  work  of  the  "confidence"  men  and 
the  professional  gamblers  in  the  steamer's  smoke- 
room. 

5 


LABOR    IN    EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

The  following  story,  authenticated  by  a  fellow- 
traveller^  is  of  interest.  A  passenger,  at  the  end  of 
a  recent  trip,  made  this  little  speech  to  a  steward: 
''Here's  the  minimum  tip  for  you.  I  am  obliged  by 
custorn  to  give  you  something,  but  I'll  not  make  it 
enough  to  help  induce  the  steamship  company  to  still 
further  reduce  your  paltry  pay.  But  I  pledge  you 
that  the  day  you  go  on  strike  for  better  pay  and  no 
tips  I'll  send  $25  to  help  you  win." 

It  would  be  well  worth  that  sum  to  every  American 
passenger  to  rid  himself  of  the  tipping  nuisance  on  his 
steamship  voyages. 

In  the  engine-room  of  a  transatlantic  steamer  the 
stokers  and  coal-passers  and  trimmers  work  four 
hours  on  and  eight  hours  off.  The  stokers  receive 
$22.50,  and  the  coal-passers  and  trimmers  $20  per 
month.  I  was  unable  to  see  their  sleeping-quarters; 
^  but  their  labor  representative  in  Liverpool  told  me 
;  \that  their  "bunk-rooms"  were  anything  but  models 
for  light  and  ventilation,  with  fully  a  Turkish  bath 
temperature.  I  saw  the  place  on  the  Baltic  where 
the  men  of  this  class  eat.  It  is  a  small,  narrow  com- 
partment, to  be  likened  to  a  damp,  hot  stable.  Benches 
and  tables  are  Of  the  rudest  possible  construction. 
Those  I  saw  at  their  meal  had  bread,  tea,  and  a  sort 
of  stew.  The  Baltic  has  sixty  of  these  men. 

The  thirty-six  sailors  of  the  Baltic  work  four  hours 
on  atid  four  off;  they  are  paid  $20  per  month.  They 
were  sleeping  in  their  clothes  when  I  saw  them. 
Their  bunks  ranged  around  against  the  vessel's  side 
in  the  forecastle.  The  discolored  mattresses  and 

6 


UNDERWORLD   OF   AN    OCEAN    STEAMER 

blankets  looked  ready  for  the  rag-shop  or  the  dis- 
infecting chamber. 

On  contemplating  the  lot  of  the  sailors,  stokers, 
and  coal-handlers  of  a  steamship,  one  asks  himself 
how  it  is  that  men  can  be  found  who  will  consent  to 
get  down  to  such  dreary,  painful,  and  ill  -  requited 
toil,  performed  under  such  hard  conditions.  As  a 
fact,  every  man  to  whom  escape  is  possible  will  flee 
from  that  sort  of  life.  It  must  be  the  more  helpless 
characters,  from  whatever  cause,  who  remain.  One 
thing  is  to  be  remembered.  The  men  are  bound  to 
work  the  round  trip  from  England,  for  if  they  quit 
at  New  York  they  forfeit  the  pay  already  earned. 
And  another:  at  Liverpool  22,000  dock  laborers  re- 
port at  the  gates  alongshore  every  day  seeking  a 
job;  and  on  the  average  only  15,000  find  employ- 
ment. The  "surplus"  7000  indicate  the  possible 
state  of  unemployment  in  the  maritime  labor  of  Great 
Britain.  The  Liverpool  dockers  have  a  fairly  well 
organized  union,  with  its  own  bureau,  impartially  and 
in  rotation  assigning  men  to  the  work.  It  has  a 
system  of  paying  benefits  in  cases  of  sickness  and 
death;  it  has  a  voice  in  fixing  the  wage  scale  for  the 
men — a  better  scale  than  that  obtained  some  years 
ago,  low  as  it  is  to-day.  But  with  the  men  on  ship- 
board it  must  be  admitted  the  union  sentiment  at 
present  is  not  strong. 

As  one  looks  at  that  part  of  the  steerage  to  which 
the  immigrants  into  the  United  States  from  the  east 
of  Europe  are  packed,  he  asks  himself  whether  the 
government  regulations  which  are  applicable  are  yet 

7 


LABOR    IN    EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

up  to  a  civilized  standard.  To  stow  away  for  the 
night  perhaps  one  hundred  men  (or,  in  another  com- 
partment, women)  in  a  low-ceiled  space,  on  layers 
of  iron  berths,  apart  only  far  enough  to  admit  of 
crowding  one's  way  along,  is  stabling  them  under 
worse  conditions  than  cattle  are  ordinarily  kept. 
The  English-speaking  third-class  passengers  have 
cabins  of  two,  four,  eight  berths  of  bare  boards,  it  is 
true,  but  in  possible  cleanliness  and  decency  they 
are  in  great  contrast  with  the  dormitories,  or  rather 
pens,  in  which  are  confined  the  Italians,  Magyars, 
and  Russian  Jews. 

:  In  these  observations,  obviously,  I  cast  no  especial 
reflection  upon  the  White  Star  Line.  On  the  con- 
trary, I  am  prepared  to  hear  that  its  treatment  of 
stewards  and  steerage  passengers  is  even  better  than 
the  average.  I  but  speak  of  facts  that  have  passed 
under  my  own  observation,  with  some  mention  of 
the  views  relevant  to  them  natural  to  one  who  hopes 
and  expects  better  things  for  labor. 

One  of  my  fellow-passengers  on  the  Baltic,  a  gentle- 
man who  is  thoroughly  conversant  with  the  mar- 
keting of  men's  hats,  mentioned  to  me  a  recent 
development  in  that  trade  very  significant  to  the 
people  of  the  United  States,  and  particularly  to  the 
hatters  and  hat-manufacturers  who  have  been  en- 
gaged for  the  past  five  months  in  an  industrial  strug- 
gle. He  informed  me  that  within  the  last  six  months 
the  importation  of  English-made  hats  has  increased 
by  a  large  percentage,  and  that  there  has  been  a 
great  increase  in  the  use  of  caps.  He  reasoned  from 

8 


UNDERWORLD    OF    AN  OCEAN    STEAMER 

this  that  a  large  number  of  American  working-men 
have  been  avoiding  the  purchase  of  non-union  hats 
as  an  easy  way  of  solving  the  situation  with  which 
they  were  confronted.  He  said,  further:  " Suppose, 
now  that  the  hitherto  wearer  of  derby  hats  should 
learn  the  advantages  of  the  cap!  It  has  some  de- 
cided ones.  It  is  far  more  easily  adjustable  to  the 
head  than  a  stiff-rimmed  hat.  It  does  not  blow  off 
so  easily.  It  lets  the  wearer  lean  back  against  a  wall 
or  the  back  of  a  car  seat.  It  is  not  so  ready  to  be 
knocked  off  the  head.  It  does  not  show  a  dent,  and 
is  not  so  easily  soiled.  Moreover,  it  is  cheaper.  In 
winter  it  is  warmer,  and  can  be  provided  with  flaps. 
It  may  be  that  the  cap,  as  the  result  of  the  dearth  of 
hats,  will  become  the  fashion  in  America  with  many 
classes  of  people,  as  it  is  in  the  British  Isles.  It  some- 
times takes  very  little  pushing  one  way  or  another 
to  make  or  unmake  a  fashion."  If  a  million  or  two 
of  organized  working-men  should  start  buying  caps, 
the  cap-manufacturers  would  soon  put  the  finest  in 
form  and  material  on  the  market.  The  result  would 
be  a  virtual  as  well  as  an  entirely  victorious  boycott 
on  hats.  Hatters  now  on  strike  can  turn  to  making 
caps,  but  the  manufacturers'  combine  would  fare  badly. 
Less  causes  than  their  lockout  have  had  just  as  great 
effect  on  the  fortunes  of  industries  or  possible  disaster 
to  them.  The  Executive  Council  of  the  American 
Federation  of  Labor  could  become  cap- wearers  with- 
out being  in  danger  of  prison  as  boycotters. 

My  arrival  in  Liverpool  being  on  Sunday  afforded 
me  an  opportunity  of  seeing  numbers  of  gatherings  of 

9 


LABOR   IN    EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

men  in  the  public  squares — meetings  of  a  religious  or 
reformatory  character  as  well  as  for  the  discussion  of 
grievances.  Some  other  time  I  may  report  the  spe- 
cific characteristics  of  these  meetings,  but  for  the  pres- 
ent I  merely  report  the  fact  that  a  deep  degree  of 
poverty  was  written  upon  many  faces  in  the  throngs 
which  I  saw.  Men  with  whom  I  discussed  this  mat- 
ter, and  whose  statements  no  doubt  were  authentic, 
informed  me  that  a  large  proportion  of  the  workers 
are  in  a  chronic  state  of  unemployment — that  poverty 
and  misery  are  everywhere  in  England,  and  that  the 
reason  for  wan  faces,  tattered  clothing,  and  unshod 
feet,  even  on  the  Sabbath,  is  to  be  found  in  the  num- 
ber of  the  constantly  unemployed. 

In  Liverpool  there  is  a  district  which  has  developed 
into  a  full-fledged  Chinatown.  It  covers  quite  an 
area,  but  not  so  large  as  that  in  New  York  or  San 
Francisco.  Nor,  so  far  as  I  have  been  able  to  learn, 
are  there  subterranean  habitations.  That  would 
not  be  permitted  here.  >£&ut  one  feature  of  Chinese 
life  in  Liverpool  I  have  not  observed  in  the  United 
States.  That  is,  it  is  quite  common  in  Liverpool 
for  Chinamen  either  to  marry  or  live  in  concubi- 
nage with  white  women ;  and  on  the  streets  one  can 
frequently  see  white  women  carrying  their  half-caste 
Chinese  offspring  in  their  arms,  or  almond  -  eyed 
tots  clinging  to  the  skirts  of  their  white  mothers. 
About  twenty  years  ago  the  first  Chinese  came  into 
the  life  of  the  people  of  Liverpool,  \pparently  un- 
noticed. Others  followed,  until  there  are  fully  two 
thousand  here.  They  lured  young  girls  into  their 

jo 


UNDERWORLD    OF   AN    OCEAN    STEAMER 

dens,  to  become  finally  their  victims.  In  Liverpool's 
Chinatown  one  can  see  boys  and  girls  from  ten  to 
sixteen  years  of  age  listlessly  walking  the  streets 
without  the  slightest  indication  of  the  Caucasian  in 
their  mother,  and  with  the  fully  developed  facial 
characteristics  of  their  Mongolian  fathers.  The  amal- 
gamation has  resulted  in  the  elimination  of  the  white 
without  even  the  maintenance  of  the  best  that  may 
be  in  the  character  of  the  Chinese.  Already  the 
Chinese  question,  together  with  the  half-breed  feat- 
ure, is  arousing  the  thought  and  concern  of  a  large 
number  of  the  people  of  Liverpool. 


ENGLISH  LABOR— IN  PARLIAMENT,  FACTORY, 
AND  SLUM 

LONDON,  Tuesday,  July  6,  1909. 

IN  mentally  reviewing  my  travels  of  the  ten  days 
just  passed,  I  have  the  sensation  of  one  who  has  been 
looking  at  moving  pictures.  After  a  Sunday  and  part 
of  Monday  in  Liverpool,  I  crossed  the  Irish  Chan- 
nel and  reached  Dublin  in  the  afternoon;  on  Wed- 
nesday I  recrossed  to  Holyhead  and  visited  Chester; 
I  spent  Thursday  and  Friday  at  Blackpool,  and  Sat- 
urday I  went  early  to  Manchester,  and  on  to  London 
in  the  evening.  In  my  journeyings  I  have  met  old 
friends  and  made  new  ones,  heard  many  speeches  and 
made  a  few  myself,  caught  suggestive  glimpses  of  the 
difference  between  the  English  and  American  labor 
organizations  and  methods,  and  have  had  before  me 
every  hour  the  evidence  of  a  social  situation,  atmos- 
phere, and  conflict  that  is  an  ocean  apart  from  what 
one  sees  in  America.  But  in  what  I  have  to  write 
to-day  I  shall  not  attempt  to  go  profoundly  into 
social  questions.  My  remarks  will  take  rather  the 
form  of  moving  pictures. 

Let  me  set  it  down  as  a  solemn  fact  that  what  is 
regarded  as  a  well-worn  bit  of  humor  when  related  in 
connection  with  enterprising  American  journalism 
has  become  literary  true.  I  met  in  Liverpool  several 

12 


ENGLISH    LABOR 

British  "  pressmen "  (reporters).  I  descended  the 
gang-plank  from  the  Baltic.  Before  I  could  even 
reach  the  baggage-room  for  the  inspection  of  the 
Custom-House  officials,  one  of  them,  a  very  smooth 
and  apparently  shy  young  Englishman,  had  me  by 
the  elbow,  saying:  "Mr.  Gompers,  I  have  been  di- 
rected by  my  editor  to  ask  you  regarding  your  im- 
pressions of  England  —  to  know  whether  the  people 
of  the  States  or  of  England  have  made  the  greater 
progress."  He  stuck  to  me  as  long  as  his  idea  of 
good  breeding  permitted,  propounding  equally  origi- 
nal inquiries  all  the  time;  and  although  polite  he 
seemed  rather  unsatisfied  when  I  asked  for  time  to 
learn  something  of  the  subject  upon  which  he  was 
seeking  information. 

I  shall  not  pretend  that  I  performed  any  deep 
social  investigations  in  Liverpool.  One  might  prob- 
ably take  up  months  in  delving  into  the  records  and 
results  of  the  various  movements  intended  to  put 
flesh  upon  the  bones  of  Liverpool's  poor,  whole  clothes 
on  their  bodies,  sound  brains  in  their  craniums,  and 
hope  in  their  hearts.  I  was  told  that  drunkenness 
had  declined,  that  with  improved  organization  among 
the  workers  along  the  water-front  wages  and  condi- 
tions are  not  so  bad  as  they  were  some  years  ago; 
that  the  general  scheme  of  municipal  improvement, 
though  costly,  has  had  some  good  results  for  the  work- 
ing-class in  houses,  education,  and  hygiene.  It  was 
clear  that  the  streets  were  well  paved  and  clean;  it 
could  be  heard  on  all  sides  and  read  in  the  local 
press  that  the  deprived  classes  were  voicing  their  cry 

13 


LABOR   IN    EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

against  injustice  and  in  favor  of  the  various  projects 
for  the  social  uplift. 

Minor  incidents  at  times  are  strong  in  suggestion. 
I  was  taken  with  a  party  by  the  reception  committee 
to  a  very  modest  roadside  house  about  eight  miles 
from  the  city,  where  tea  was  served.  When  ready, 
a  young  man  in  a  bicycle  suit  opened  the  door  of  the 
sitting-room  and  called  to  us,  "  Comrades,  tea  is 
ready,"  receiving  applause  for  his  democratic  joke 
at  thus  dubbing  several  members  of  Parliament  who 
were  with  us.  The  "tea,"  which  was  made  up  of 
bread  baked  in  the  solid  English  style,  excellent 
butter,  biscuits,  sandwiches,  and  marmalade,  was  in 
all  respects  as  good  as  any  hotel  could  serve ;  but  the 
price  was  only  eighteen  cents  per  person.  "This  is 
our  Socialistic  co-operation,"  said  one  of  our  hosts; 
and  he  went  on  to  relate  that  his  comrades  and  fellow- 
propagandists  from  Liverpool,  Chester,  and  other 
towns  as  far  away  as  Manchester  are  wont  to  gather 
at  this  club-house,  which  they  jointly  operate,  and 
tell  one  another  precious  things  relating  to  their 
cause.  He  pointed  to  the  portraits  of  Socialist  leaders 
on  the  wall,  and  notices  of  meetings  and  other  events 
on  the  bulletin-board.  Continuing,  he  said:  "We 
have  here  a  presage  of  the  future.  No  capitalistic  ex- 
ploiters are  growing  rich  on  our  patronage.  A  man 
or  a  woman  can  come  here  for  a  week-end — that  is, 
from  Saturday  evening,  and  stay  until  Sunday  even- 
ing— getting  a  bed  and  four  meals  for  less  than  a  dol- 
lar." The  earnest  members  of  this  club  believe  they 
are  thus  promoting  Socialism,  little  realizing  that  the 

14 


ENGLISH    LABOR 

club  scheme  is  entirely  voluntary,  while  a  Socialist 
State  would  be  absolutely  compulsory.  As  we  came 
away,  I  looked  at  the  red  flag  floating  from  a  high 
pole  in  the  grounds,  and  said:  "Your  co-operative 
club-house  is  a  good  example  of  the  Socialism  I  will 
join  with  you  in  promoting." 

But  another  minor  incident  in  which  I  had  a  part 
occurred  in  Dublin,  and  elicited  a  different  phase  of 
Socialist  methods.  A  reception  was  given  to  me  in 
the  Trades  Council  Hall,  in  Capel  Street,  by  the  Parlia- 
mentary Committee  of  the  Irish  Trades  Union  Con- 
gress and  the  leading  members  of  the  Dublin  Trades 
Council.  The  spirit  of  cordiality  was  all  that  could 
be  desired ;  but  the  speeches,  apart  from  the  personal 
aspect,  sounded  on  the  whole  a  minor  or  pessimistic 
note.  One  speaker  mentioned  the  deplorable  decrease 
of  the  Irish  population;  another  referred  to  the  ac- 
cepted fact  that  Irishmen,  when  gathering  together, 
"do  not  always  see  eye  to  eye  with  each  other";  and 
a  third  deplored  the  slow  progress  of  the  labor  move- 
ment in  Ireland  as  compared  with  other  countries. 
Much  of  the  distress  in  Ireland,  I  am  told,  is  caused 
by  farmers  and  landowners  departing  from  agriculture 
to  cattle-raising,  numbers  of  workers  being  rendered 
superfluous  by  the  transition.  Fully  forty  thousand 
of  Ireland's  people  leave  her  shores  annually;  and 
the  census,  as  well  as  the  apparent  workless  worker, 
tell  the  same  tale.  Having  been  toasted  most  cor- 
dially— a  compliment  in  which  nearly  all  the  com- 
pany participated  by  making  brief  speeches — I  was 
called  upon  to  respond.  After  my  address  a  general 

15 


LABOR   IN   EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

discussion  ensued,  when  a  young  man,  the  youngest 
in  the  company,  with  impassioned  gesture  and  fiery 
words,  "rebuked"  all  his  hearers.  He  declared  that 
he  was  a  Socialist,  and  added:  "Only  Socialists  under- 
stand the  root  evil  of  the  labor  problem  or  possess  an 
effective  remedy."  The  occasion  caused  me  to  be 
less  agreeable  in  my  reply  to  him  in  the  presence  of 
an  audience  than  I  had  been  with  our  road-house 
Socialist  friend  in  Liverpool.  I  undertook  to  strive 
seriously  to  teach  him  something  of  sound  thought 
and  good  manners,  much  to  the  delight  of  nine-tenths 
of  the  assembled  guests. 

At  Blackpool  I  attended  the  tenth  annual  congress 
of  the  General  Federation  of  Trade  Unions.  The 
duties  performed  by  the  American  Federation  of 
Labor,  as  representative  of  our  affiliated  trade  unions, 
require  in  Great  Britain  three  national  bodies  made 
up  of  associated  unions — viz.,  the  British  Trade  Union 
Congress  with  its  permanent  Parliamentary  Com- 
mittee, the  Parliamentary  Labor  Party,  and  the  Gen- 
eral Federation  of  Trade  Unions.  The  history  of  these 
bodies,  the  personality  of  their  leaders,  and  the  de- 
velopment at  the  different  periods  of  the  need  of  their 
respective  operations,  might  make  plain  their  sep- 
arate existence  and  administrations;  but  I  am  not 
prepared  to  enter  too  deeply  upon  the  subject  here. 

The  main  object  of  the  General  Federation  of 
Trades  is  to  give  systematic  financial  backing  to  its 
constituent  unions  during  trade  disputes.  An  an- 
nual per-capita  tax  is  paid  into  the  treasury  of  each 
union  affiliated;  and  in  case  of  unemployment  due 

16 


ENGLISH    LABOR 

to  a  controversy  with  employers  a  weekly  benefit  in 
addition  to  that  of  the  particular  union  involved  is 
paid.  The  Federation  was  formed  in  1898,  with  43 
societies  or  unions  having  343,000  members;  and  it 
has  now  131  societies  with  a  membership  of  693,998. 
The  treasury  was  increased  every  year  until  the  last 
by  an  average  of  $50,000  annually.  The  reserve  fund 
at  the  beginning  of  1908  was  over  $800,000.  The 
stoppage  in  the  cotton  trade  last  year  brought  un- 
employment to  45,000  members;  and  this,  with  many 
lesser  disputes,  caused  an  outlay  from  the  treasury 
of  something  over  $600,000.  In  all,  from  March  i, 
1908,  to  March  i,  1909,  the  Federation  dealt  with 
638  disputes,  involving  54,962  persons.  The  treasury 
now  contains  $370,000. 

The  "agenda"  or  program  of  the  meeting  com- 
prised little  more  than  matters  of  routine.  Except 
for  the  democratic  idea  of  having  every  affiliated 
union  satisfying  its  members  by  being  represented, 
an  auditor  and  executive  committee  might  perhaps 
have  attended  to  all  the  essential  business  that  was 
done.  Some  significance,  however,  lay  in  the  speeches. 
The  chairman  spoke  of  there  having  been  not  one 
suspension  of  work  (strike)  in  the  previous  year  that 
was  caused  by  the  demand  of  a  union.  All  the  dis- 
putes originated  in  orders  by  employers  for  reduc- 
tions in  wages  or  through  similar  aggressions  on 
labor.  This  statement  brought  up  in  my  mind  a 
line  of  inquiry  which  I  intend  pursuing  fully  before 
reaching  some  of  the  conclusions  which  it  suggests. 
Why  should  not  the  workers,  particularly  the  or- 
2  I7 


LABOR   IN    EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

ganized  workers  in  trade  unions,  ask  for  more,  es- 
pecially when  wages  are  so  low  as  they  are  in  Great 
Britain  ?  Surely,  the  workers  will  not  become  larger 
sharers  in  the  product  of  their  toil  unless  they  make 
some  effort  toward  its  attainment. 

Neither  of  the  two  questions  before  the  congress 
which  caused  any  considerable  discussion  had  any 
bearing  on  union  topics  as  we  understand  them  in 
the  United  States.  One  of  them,  relating  to  the 
acceptance  in  trade  unions  of  soldiers  trained  to 
trades  while  in  the  service,  sought  to  induce  the 
Federation  to  memorialize  the  War  Office,  the  Prime 
Minister,  and  the  President  of  the  Board  of  Trade  in 
relation  to  trade  instruction  in  the  army.  This  prop- 
osition, however,  was  negatived.  The  other  ques- 
tion, which  was  of  a  much  more  important  character, 
will  come  up  for  serious  consideration  at  the  Trade 
Union  Congress  at  Ipswich  in  September.  It  relates 
to  national  insurance  against  unemployment,  the  ad- 
ministration of  which  will  necessitate  considerable 
expenditure,  and  will  create,  as  some  have  facetiously 
stated,  many  new  office-holders.  The  outcome  of  the 
debates  at  the  meeting  is  stated  in  these  words  by 
the  Manchester  Guardian:  "It  may  be  taken  that 
the  Labor  members  of  Parliament  will  continue  to 
look  with  sympathy  on  the  Government's  intentions 
while  at  the  same  time  reserving  to  themselves  the 
right  of  criticism  in  detail."  And  the  same  news- 
paper adds:  "More  especially  would  it  be  urged  that 
the  trade  unions  should  supply  a  definite  proportion 
of  the  representatives  to  be  appointed."  The  op- 

18 


ENGLISH    LABOR 

portents  of  the  scheme  in  the  Federation  advanced  the 
argument  that  certain  of  its  supporters  were  at- 
tracted to  it  because  of  the  possible  benefit  to  them- 
selves as  such  appointees.  It  was  also  pointed  out 
that  union  members  would,  under  the  bill  that  has 
been  prepared,  suffer  under  the  disadvantage  of  pay- 
ing weekly  dues  to  both  the  union  for  the  out-of-work 
benefits  paid  by  the  union,  and  to  the  administrators 
of  the  Government's  insurance  against  unemploy- 
ment. In  such  case  the  union  dues  might  cease,  to 
the  injury  of  the  unions.  Further,  the  fate  of  the 
union-insured  workmen  out  of  work  because  of  a 
strike  or  a  lockout  would  present  a  difficult  problem; 
and  their  refusal  to  apply  for  work  with  non-unionists 
might  render  it  difficult  for  them  to  procure  any 
benefit  at  all. 

Blackpool,  as  the  seaside  resort  of  the  factory  popu- 
lation of  Lancashire,  Yorkshire,  and  Warwickshire, 
presents  interesting  features.  The  place,  which  has 
a  permanent  population  of  sixty  thousand,  is  visited 
by  three  million  holiday -seekers  annually,  chiefly  from 
June  to  September.  All  its  building  and  street  con- 
struction work  is  substantial.  The  houses  are  of 
brick;  the  streets  are  paved  with  asphalt;  the  es- 
planade, which  varies  from  one  hundred  to  two 
hundred  feet  in  width,  runs  four  and  a  half  miles 
along  the  shore  on  a  bluff  thirty  to  fifty  feet  higher 
than  the  beach.  Promenaders,  often  in  great  crowds, 
are  to  be  seen  on  it  at  all  hours  until  after  midnight. 
In  the  evening  the  street  scenes  are  brilliant  with 
electric  light.  A  steel  "Eiffel  tower,"  five  hundred 

19 


LABOR   IN   EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

feet  high;  half  a  dozen  theatres;  a  "winter  garden," 
with  all  its  Luna  Park  attractions  under  glass  roofsj 
several  roller-skating  rinks  and  dancing-halls;  a 
shoot-the-chute,  a  scenic  railway,  and  similar  attrac- 
tions, indicate  the  methods  by  which  the  wage  earners 
get  rid  of  their  appropriations  for  the  outing.  It  is 
the  custom  for  the  "hands"  of  the  mills  in  the  textile 
industry  to  contribute  a  small  sum  weekly  to  a  com- 
mon fund  for  the  "wakes,"  as  they  call  their  vacation 
session. 

Several  peculiarities  in  the  Blackpool  crowds  were 
striking.  As  compared  with  our  Coney  Island  crowds, 
they  were  quiet,  slow,  unanimated.  Perhaps  seventy 
or  eighty  per  cent,  were  young  people — very  young 
people.  Boys  from  sixteen  to  twenty  years  of  age 
were  paired  off  walking  with  girls  still  younger.  This 
was  quite  general.  Collectively,  they  were  the  small- 
est people  in  stature  I  have  ever  seen  in  an  English- 
speaking  community.  Not  only  was  the  average 
height  hardly  more  than  five  feet;  but  narrow,  bony 
shoulders,  span- width  chests,  and  spindle  legs  were 
the  rule.  A  London  newspaper  man,  who  walked 
about  with  me,  and  who  was  making  his  first  visit 
to  Blackpool,  was  as  much  struck  as  I  was  with  the 
diminutive  size  of  the  promenaders.  "Nothing  like 
it,  even  in  London,  so  indicative  of  physical  degen- 
eracy," he  remarked.  "How  flat-chested  these  girls 
are;  what  a  slovenly  gait  the  boys  have!  I  venture 
they  don't  weigh  one  hundred  pounds  apiece!"  Some 
of  the  young  men  who  were  in  volunteer  khaki  were 
decidedly  lacking  in  smartness.  They  might  have 

20 


ENGLISH    LABOR 

been  wearing  the  cast-off  uniforms  of  boys  of  the 
military  academies  of  the  grammar-school  grade. 

What  is  the  explanation  of  this  stunting  of  a  por- 
tion of  the  English  race?  One  of  the  little  fellows 
himself  made  this  explanation  to  me:  "The  sins  of 
the  father  are  visited  on  the  child.  Before  the  days 
of  the  protective  factory  laws,  children  were  put  to 
work  in  the  mills  at  eight  years  of  age — yes,  even  at 
six — and  they  were  compelled  to  work  twelve  hours 
a  day.  In  manhood  they  begat  these  youngsters, 
who  themselves  often  go  to  work  too  young." 

One  seldom  sees  a  "square  dance"  or  quadrille  here. 
Round  dancing  is  the  favorite  amusement  of  these 
factory  folks.  Another  highly  popular  pastime  with 
them  is  sitting  after  dark  on  the  esplanade  benches, 
not  to  view  the  ocean,  but,  in  the  words  of  one  of  the 
amused  observers,  "to  cuddle  and  kiss."  It  would 
be  interesting  to  get  medical  testimony  in  respect  to 
this  habit  as  well  as  round  dancing;  for  the  round 
dancers  turn  all  one  way,  very  few  reversing. 

In  Manchester  I  visited  the  vast  warehouses  of 
the  Wholesale  Co-operative  Society.  I  shall  not  tire 
the  reader's  patience  with  the  long  statistical  state- 
ments necessary  to  impress  on  him  the  truth  as  to 
the  present  status  of  the  society,  if  he  would  but  read 
them  all.  In  the  last  fifteen  years  the  increase  in 
the  business  transacted  has  been  marvellous,  the 
volume  in  the  past  year  exceeding  $160,000,000. 
"Hundreds  of  new  societies  were  formed,  embracing 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  new  members  and  tens  of 
thousands  of  additional  employes."  So  runs  the 

21 


LABOR   IN    EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

story.  It  is  fourteen  years  since  I  last  visited  Man- 
chester. I  was  greatly  impressed  with  the  develop- 
ment of  this  democratic  industrial  and  commercial 
concern.  I  again  satisfied  myself  that  the  trade 
unionists  in  several  of  the  largest  industrial  regions 
of  Great  Britain  are  staunch  supporters  of  the  co- 
operative movement.  In  the  existence  of  a  Joint 
Council  of  Trade  Unionists  and  Co-operatives,  peace 
between  the  two  great  economic  working-class  move- 
ments is  promoted.  There  are  no  millionaires  in  the 
co-operative  business  so  impressively  represented  in 
the  Manchester  headquarters;  no  rare  geniuses  as 
paragons  of  success;  no  ''captains  of  industry,"  and 
yet  it  is  one  of  the  greatest  business  institutions  in 
the  world. 

One  of  the  statements  made  to  me  by  an  active 
man  in  the  affairs  of  Manchester,  which  greatly  im- 
pressed me,  was  to  the  effect  that  the  school  trustees, 
through  the  teachers,  present  to  any  pupil,  boy  or  girl, 
a  free  plant,  the  only  condition  being  a  promise  to 
care  for  it,  to  nurture  it,  and  that  this  has  a  good  in- 
fluence upon  the  minds  and  conduct  of  the  children. 

On  the  train  from  Manchester  to  London  I  fell  into 
conversation  with  a  young  college  man  from  New 
Zealand,  where  he  had  lived  all  his  life;  but  after 
some  years'  experience  as  a  civil  engineer  he  was 
taking  a  post-graduate  course  in  England.  I  put  to 
him  the  usual  queries  as  to  New  Zealand's  social  ex- 
periments. From  his  replies,  the  nature  of  the  ques- 
tions may  be  easily  inferred.  They  were  as  follows: 
"All  classes  are  satisfied  with  the  land  policy  of  the 

22 


ENGLISH    LABOR 

country — the  breaking  up  of  the  immense  estates, 
through  compensation  to  the  owners,  with  the  loan 
system  to  the  settlers,  keeps  access  to  the  land  con- 
tinually open;  and  consequently  there  is  little  pov- 
erty in  the  country.  The  exclusion  of  pauper  immi- 
grants and  alien  races  is  generally  satisfactory.  The 
Government  railroad  system,  comprising  only  two 
thousand  miles,  is  less  economically  and  efficiently 
managed  than  it  would  be  in  private  hands.  I  know 
of  one  case  in  which  a  line  of  eighty  miles  had  been 
profitable  to  a  company,  and  satisfactory  to  the  pub- 
lic, but  which,  since  taken  over  by  the  Government, 
has  ceased  to  pay;  and  the  service  at  the  same  time 
is  less  satisfactory  than  formerly.  The  bookkeeping 
in  connection  with  public  enterprises  is  difficult,  as 
outlays  are  sometimes  not  charged  up  to  the  under- 
taking, but  to  the  public  treasury.  As  to  compulsory 
arbitration  in  trade  disputes  between  employers  and 
the  employed,  it  is  now  unpopular  both  with  the  em- 
ployers and  the  workers."  He  cited  the  now  well- 
known  cases  of  the  boot  and  shoe  manufacturers  who 
closed  their  factories  rather  than  obey  the  findings 
against  them  of  the  Government  arbitrators,  and  the 
case  of  the  butcher  workmen  who  were  fined  or  went 
to  jail  rather  than  work  on  terms  which  they  deemed 
unjust.  In  other  words,  the  outcome  to  the  present 
time  of  compulsory  arbitration  in  '  *  the  country  with- 
out strikes"  has  been  injurious  to  the  business  of  the 
employers  and  destructive  of  the  liberty  of  the  wage- 
workers.  I  necessarily  only  repeat  the  summary  of 
the  views  of  this  native  of  New  Zealand  of  English 

23 


LABOR   IN    EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

stock  for  what  it  may  be  worth,  as  a  sort  of  sign-board 
to  the  reservoirs  of  further  information;  but  it  coin- 
cides with  the  results  of  the  recent  observations  of 
the  thinkers  and  doers  in  the  industrial  field  of  the 
United  States. 

On  Sunday  I  went  to  Hyde  Park,  London,  not  to 
view  the  famous  " church  parade,"  in  which  the  un- 
worldly worshipers  walk  about  on  their  way  home 
from  service  to  look  at  one  another's  fine  prayer-books, 
but  to  hear  something  of  what  the  open-air  orators 
were  saying  in  this  land  of  free  speech.  From  the 
snatches  of  the  ''rostrum"  talk  that  I  heard  while 
standing  on  the  outer  fringe  of  several  groups,  I  took 
it  that  the  standing  topics  of  social  reform  were 
being  resifted  for  the  listeners  by  most  of  the  speakers. 
While  it  may  be  that  in  the  eyes  of  the  great  English 
public  men  these  gatherings  are  hardly  to  be  re- 
garded as  of  much  importance,  the  English  spirit 
must  be  admired  which  tolerates,  even  promotes, 
them,  as  well  as  the  spirit  in  which  the  participants 
join  in  them.  The  speaking  proceeds  in  seriousness 
and  a  reasonableness  of  tone.  Any  one  may  put  ques- 
tions to  the  orators.  Many  a  thing  that  a  writer 
might  assert  without  contradiction  cannot  be  uttered 
by  a  speaker  without  being  instantly  caught  up. 
Besides,  a  large  number  of  persons  who  have  not 
ready  access  to  libraries  may  get  in  the  "academies" 
of  the  park  an  education  in  current  subjects;  and 
also  there  are  the  vivifying  open  air  and  one's  sense 
of  certainty  or  of  suspicion  regarding  the  statements 
of  the  speakers  confirmed  by  the  manifestations  of 

24 


ENGLISH    LABOR 

the  crowd.  The  custom  of  Sunday  and  every-day 
street  and  park  meetings  is  common  in  England.  I 
am  informed  that  sometimes  most  excellent  speeches 
are  made.  Those  that  I  heard,  however,  were  rather 
of  a  drowsy  order.  The  police  on  duty  always  exert 
their  authority  to  maintain  the  right  of  the  speaker 
to  be  heard  without  molestation. 

The  suffragettes  furnished  one  of  the  topics  for 
the  speeches.  Whatever  the  merits  of  their  case,  I 
heard  men  who  were  usually  friendly  to  them  say 
that  the  methods  they  are  pursuing  are  injurious  to 
their  cause.  Weakness  pretending  to  assault  strength 
violently,  they  say,  becomes  absurd ;  and  it  is  pointed 
out  that  certain  forms  of  advertising  react  upon  those 
who  seek  publicity,  because  they  show  what  should 
not  be  shown.  Yet,  despite  the  adverse  criticism  of 
nearly  all  the  people  toward  the  manner  in  which  the 
suffragettes  conduct  themselves,  it  cannot  be  gain- 
said that  the  cause  of  woman  suffrage  co-equal  with 
that  of  man  is  gaining  ground  in  Great  Britain. 

On  Sunday  morning  I  visited  the  house  in  which  I 
was  born,  No.  2  Fort  Street,  Spitalfields,  London.  I 
passed  through  neighborhoods  almost  every  house  of 
which  I  knew  more  than  half  a  century  ago,  when 
a  lad  of  eight.  I  was  in  my  twelfth  year  when  my 
father  took  his  family  to  the  United  States.  Cheap- 
side,  Cornhill,  Commercial  Street,  Houndsditch,  Bish- 
opsgate  Street  —  these  all  looked  much  the  same  as 
they  did  in  the  long  ago.  I  made  my  way  to  our  own 
old  street  and  stood  before  the  house  in  which  I  was 
born.  I  had  revisited  the  spot  fourteen  years  ago, 

25 


LABOR   IN   EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

for  the  first  time  since  my  boyhood;  and  I  was  then 
subject  to  those  peculiar  sentiments,  both  pleasing 
and  depressing,  with  which  one  is  seized  when  be- 
holding with  mature  vision  what  was  familiar  to  the 
unknowing  eyes  of  childhood  and  dimmed  to  the 
transforming  memory  of  later  years. 

Somehow,  the  blunt  and  hard  facts,  in  the  light  of 
comparisons,  brought  disillusionment.  The  great 
things  to  the  boy  are  e very-day  matters  to  the  man. 
Yet  this  was  the  scene  of  the  struggles  of  my  father 
and  the  loving  care  of  my  mother.  Home  was  once 
there.  We  were  happy,  that  big  family  of  ours,  in 
our  childhood,  hard-working  though  we  were.  Kindly 
people  now  live  in  the  house.  Its  "bread-winners" 
have  "gone  to  Chicago,"  the  rest  hoping  to  follow  soon. 

Perhaps  one  reason  for  the  absence  of  the  fulness 
of  that  tender  and  somewhat  mournful  sentiment 
that  conies  to  one  in  contemplation  of  his  birth-place 
lay  in  the  fact  that  with  me  were  my  wife  and  daugh- 
ter, and  also  my  very  excellent  cousin,  the  favorite 
theatrical  comedian,  in  our  own  country  as  well  as 
here,  Sam  Collins.  Sam  has  the  happy  habit  of  see- 
ing all  life  in  a  joyous  mood.  He  was  born  in  that 
same  house  in  Fort  Street ;  and  his  sole  idea,  on  now 
seeing  it  again,  was  to  rejoice  heartily  over  his  birth 
and  to  bring  us  others  present  to  laugh  and  make 
merry  with  him.  Well,  why  not?  Turn  down  the 
leaf  in  the  book  that  brings  brooding  or  heartpain,  or 
any  other  kind  of  unhappiness.  Open  at  the  leaf  that 
brings  smiles,  hope,  pleasant  faces,  good  hearts,  and 
\  full  life  to  humanity. 

26 


A   WEEK   IN   LONDON 

PARIS,  July  13,  1909. 

ANOTHER  busy  week  have  I  passed  on  my  vacation. 
It  hardly  occurred  to  me  during  my  stay  in  London 
that  I  might  do  something  at  sight-seeing,  as  I  had 
engagements  at  almost  every  waking  hour  with  men 
in  the  thick  of  the  Trade  Union  and  other  social 
movements.  The  newspaper  boys  found  that  I  could 
give  them  midnight  interviews;  consequently  they 
kept  me  up  several  nights  until  the  small  hours  prom- 
ised dawn,  describing  Trade  Union  methods  in  the 
American  Federation  of  Labor.  Sunday,  our  party 
left  London  for  Paris.  I  stopped  over  a  day  at 
Calais.  There  and  here  in  Paris  our  French  friends, 
lively,  cheerful,  generous,  and  intelligent,  have  over- 
whelmed me  with  kindly  attentions. 

Certainly,  it  is  a  curious  spectacle — that  annual 
Fourth  of  July  reception  at  Ambassador  Whitelaw 
Reid's  mansion  in  London.  This  year  on  Monday, 
the  fifth,  the  occasion  brought  together  a  crowd  of 
the  most  elegantly  attired  people  I  ever  saw.  At 
least  four-fifths  of  the  callers  were  American  women. 
The  scarcity  of  men,  as  well  as  the  fact  that  nearly 
all  of  them  were  Londonized  in  dress — "top"  hat 
and  black  frock-coat,  and  the  rest  of  it — suggested 

27 


LABOR   IN   EUROPE   AND    AMERICA 

the  thought  that  "pa"  has  about  enough  cash  this 
year  to  send  "ma"  and  the  girls  abroad;  but  he  him- 
self is  staying  in  America  to  watch  the  markets.  It 
was  a  restless,  gay,  chatty  assemblage ;  its  individual 
members  quite  uniformly  knowing  how  to  pose  to 
advantage  for  the  general  admiration.  Everybody 
arrived  on  "wheels"  at  the  palatial  mansion;  a  line 
of  knee-breeched  men  servants  indicated  the  way 
through  the  pillared  vestibule  and  court  and  up  the 
broad  marble  staircase;  at  an  upper  landing,  broad 
and  deep,  stood  the  tired  Ambassador  and  Mrs.  Reid 
shaking  hands  with  each  caller  as  his  or  her  name 
was  audibly  announced  by  an  attendant.  Beyond 
were  halls  with  polished  floors;  the  walls  hung  with 
rare  paintings;  the  ceilings  marvels  of  gilt  and 
moulding.  Thence,  after  a  dress-parade,  the  endless 
lines  of  people  descended  to  the  conservatories  and 
the  large  marquise  on  the  lawn,  to  partake  of  as  good 
a  collation  as  the  season  and  the  court  caterer  could 
supply.  The  attendance  numbered  several  thou- 
sands. Dorchester  House,  as  Ambassador  Reid's 
residence  in  Hyde  Park  is  called,  is  one  of  the  show- 
places  in  London.  It  is  said  his  rent  for  it  is  $55,000 
a  year,  more  than  three  times  the  salary  paid  him 
annually  by  the  Government  of  the  United  States. 
What  a  variety  of  sentiments — admiration,  envy, 
vanity,  shyness,  flippancy,  philosophy — must  have 
animated  the  multitude  there  forgathered!  Mr. 
Reid  has  mounted  the  ladder  high,  but  I  dare 
say  that  when  he  dreams  that  he  is  again  the 
country  -  newspaper  reporter  of  fifty  years  ago 

28 


A    WEEK   IN    LONDON 

he  is  just  as  happy  as  in  his  present  waking 
hours. 

On  the  second  of  July,  when  the  meeting  of  unem- 
ployed men  was  being  held  in  George  Square,  Glas- 
gow, about  a  hundred  and  fifty  of  them,  leaving  the 
body  of  those  in  attendance,  tried  to  "rush"  the  en- 
trance to  the  Municipal  Buildings,  where  the  special 
Distress  Committee  were  in  a  wrangle  over  the  situa- 
tion. "At  one  time,"  says  a  dispatch,  "it  appeared 
that  a  serious  riot  was  imminent,  groups  of  unem- 
ployed gathering  around  the  various  doors  and  clam- 
oring for  admittance."  Checked  in  their  rush  (by 
the  police),  they  massed  themselves  on  the  stair- 
case, and  stirring  scenes  ensued.  One  orator  in  the 
square  declared  to  the  crowd  that  they  were  "curs 
if  they  allowed  their  wives  and  children  to  starve." 
Far  from  Fourth  of  July  enthusiasm  was  the  senti- 
ment of  that  mass  of  hungry  human  beings.  The 
spectacle,  or  even  its  description,  would  be  enough, 
one  might  believe,  to  move  every  man  coming  to 
know  of  it  to  study  why  it  is  that  society  to-day  sees 
so  sad  a  disparity  in  the  distribution  of  wealth,  and 
to  do  his  share  toward  its  elimination. 

Nothing  that  has  occurred  in  England  during  my 
stay  has  so  much  stirred  me  up  as  the  fact  that 
"batches"  of  miners  in  Durham  County,  in  the  north 
of  England,  were  taken  to  prison  in  default  of  paying 
fines  in  various  sums  for  having  been  absent  from 
work  for  one  day — April  12.  One  item  in  the  news- 
paper ran  thus:  "Thirty  miners  were  yesterday  taken 
to  jail  and  were  accompanied  to  the  train  by  hun- 

29 


LABOR   IN    EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

dreds  of  the  villagers.  Later  on,  the  miners  who 
went  to  jail  last  Friday  arrived  home  after  their  im- 
prisonment for  the  same  offence,  and  were  received 
with  enthusiasm.  There  are  still  forty  miners  to  go 
to  jail."  It  appears  that  there  is  a  special  act  of 
Parliament  forbidding  workmen  to  quit  their  em- 
ployment even  for  a  day  without  due  legal  notice  to 
their  employers,  which  may  be  construed  by  the  em- 
ployer as  an  intention  to  leave  his  service.  The  miners 
of  Durham  certainly  come  under  that  law,  and 
strongly  wishing  a  day  off  took  it  despite  orders  to  the 
contrary.  Consequently  they  are  being  punished  for 
breach  of  contract.  Are  the  business,  the  employing 
classes  ever  jailed  for  such  a  "crime"?  To  me  it 
seems  that  a  gross  discrimination  exists  in  such  cases 
against  labor.  A  very  capable  and  prominent  labor 
man  assured  me  that  he  has  never  known  of  an  in- 
stance of  this  character  in  his  own  trade.  I  had  made 
the  inquiry  in  the  presence  of  a  number  of  active, 
studious  labor  men,  officials  of  labor  organizations, 
who  testified  differently  as  to  the  men  in  their  own 
unions  as  well  as  to  others.  They  mentioned  cases 
in  which  men  were  fined  and  imprisoned  in  brass- 
working,  railroading,  gas-making,  and  several  other 
trades,  for  absenting  themselves  from  work  for  even 
half  a  day.  Undoubtedly,  an  inquiry  will  yet  be 
made  by  the  trade  unionists  whether  their  rights 
under  the  British  Constitution  will  permit  imprison- 
ment for  failure  to  fulfil  the  specific  terms  of  a  con- 
tract for  personal  service.  When  contracts  exist 
between  business  men,  and  the  party  contracting 

30 


A    WEEK    IN    LONDON 

to  perform  certain  services  fails  to  fulfil  the  terms  of 
the  contract,  he  may  be  sued  for  damages.  If  he 
cannot  respond  to  civil  damages  because  of  poverty, 
the  injured  party  cannot  compel  the  specific  per- 
formance of  the  terms  of  the  contract  for  that  service. 
The  same  contention  ought  to  apply  to  the  employer 
and  the  employed. 

In  connection  with  this,  a  case  just  ended  in  the 
courts  is  to  be  noted,  in  which  the  British  Trades  Dis- 
pute Act  of  1906  has  not  worked  out  as  expected.  An 
agent  of  the  Musicians'  Union  at  Bristol,  after  the 
union  had  withdrawn  its  members  from  the  orchestra 
of  a  local  theatre  in  a  strike,  circulated  a  handbill 
asking  the  public  to  patronize  another  theatre  which 
employed  union  men.  In  the  suit  brought  by  the  "un- 
patronized"  theatrical  manager,  he  obtained  judg- 
ments for  $17,500  against,  not  the  Musicians'  Union, 
but  the  member  who  issued  the  handbill.  The  judge 
in  his  decree  expressed  views  strangely  at  variance 
with  those  entertained  not  only  by  trade  unionists, 
but  by  all  who  had  any  connection  with  the  enact- 
ment of  that  law  of  1906.  He  maintained  that  when 
the  manager  of  the  theatre  succeeded  in  hiring  a  suf- 
ficient number  of  musicians  to  satisfy  his  avowed 
needs  to  replace  the  men  who  struck,  there  no  longer 
existed  any  dispute  between  him  and  the  union. 
While  in  America  it  has  been  decided  that  the  express 
refusal  of  union  men  to  patronize  any  employer  of 
non-union  labor  is  not  illegal,  but  that  the  coercion 
of  a  ''third  party"  is  the  feature  necessary  to  es- 
tablish a  boycott  liable  to  damages,  this  judge  in 


LABOR   IN    EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

England  gave  damages  for  "  injury  to  the  plaintiff's 
business. "  With  these  decrees  as  precedents  the  ques- 
tion arises:  Are  the  "disputes"  under  the  Act  legal 
still  to  leave  the  union  treasuries  liable  to  damage- 
suits  if  the  union  takes  up  the  conflict  between  an 
employer  and  his  own  employes  ?  In  other  words,  is 
the  law  to  be  so  interpreted  that  a  union  cannot  have 
a  "dispute"  with  an  employer  when  he  is  running  his 
establishment  with  non-unionists?  Cannot  trade 
unionists,  workmen,  appeal  to  the  public  to  decline  to 
patronize  an  unfair  employer  ? 

On  Wednesday  I  visited  the  "House  of  Call"  at  the 
building  of  the  London  Society  of  Compositors  and 
addressed  several  hundreds  of  its  unemployed  mem- 
bers. I  did  what  I  could  to  inspire  those  present 
with  hope  and  determination,  but  really  in  this  coun- 
try, where  one  sees  so  much  enforced  idleness  and  dis- 
tress, the  words  of  encouragement  that  we  are  wont 
to  utter  with  truth  at  home  are  arrested  on  our  lips. 
The  London  printers'  organization  has  all  the  praise- 
worthy features  that  characterize  the  best  of  trade 
unions.  Last  year  the  unemployed  benefits  amounted 
to  $115,000  with  2,655  recipients;  besides  $47,000  was 
paid  to  474  superannuated  members.  In  198  cases 
of  death,  $13,500  was  given  to  the  next  of  kin.  The 
total  number  of  members  in  this  local  union  is  12,202 ; 
the  society's  freehold  building  in  St.  Bride's  Street  is 
valued  at  $77,000.  Secretary  T.  E.  Naylor  told  me 
that  last  year  the  expected  annual  fluctuation  in  mem- 
bership and  means  proved  the  great  stability  of  the 
society.  He  said:  "When  the  industrial  history  of 

32 


A    WEEK   IN    LONDON 

the  year  comes  to  be  written,  1908  will  be  ranked  as 
one  of  the  worst  ever  experienced  in  this  country,  not 
only  in  the  printing  trade,  but  in  all  industries  and 
occupations.  We  have  been  visited  by  a  trade  de- 
pression the  like  of  which  has  not  been  witnessed  for 
many  years,  bringing  in  its  train  the  usual  dearth  of 
employment  and  its  accompanying  distress.  In  such 
circumstances  it  is  not  surprising  that  the  London 
Society  of  Compositors,  in  common  with  almost  every 
other  trade  union,  should  suffer  some  diminution  of 
its  prosperity."  During  the  present  year,  however, 
business  has  picked  up.  The  amalgamation  of  the 
London  Society,  the  Provincial  and  the  Scottish 
Typographical  Unions  is  an  event  quite  certain  now. 
But  the  Dublin  and  other  Irish  Typographical  Unions, 
said  Secretary  Naylor,  "will  not  join." 

A  few  squares  from  the  society's  headquarters  is 
the  fine  establishment  of  the  London  branch  of  the 
Co-operative  Printing  Society;  other  branches  being 
in  Manchester  and  Newcastle.  Building  and  plant 
are  owned  by  the  society.  When  during  a  visit  to  it 
our  party  reached  the  composing-room  on  the  fifth 
story  we  were  greeted  by  that  peculiar  rattle  and 
bang  of  composing-sticks  rapped  against  the  type 
cases  which  to  compositors  I  am  told  is  the  substi- 
tute for  hand-clapping  and  other  forms  of  applause. 
Since  silence  is  the  strict  rule  in  all  well-conducted 
printeries,  this  explosive  and  long-sustained  and  al- 
most deafening  sound  of  iron  beaten  upon  sounding 
wood  is  startling.  I  was  called  upon  to  address  the 
men.  Though  I  responded  in  words,  I  did  it  briefly, 
3  33 


LABOR   IN    EUROPE    AND   AMERICA 

remembering  that  every  minute's  suspension  of  the 
click,  click  of  typesetting  meant  a  loss  of  pounds, 
shillings,  and  pence  to  the  men  and  the  co-operation. 
The  175  employes  of  this  office  have  a  forty-eight-hour 
week,  whereas  the  general  union  scale  calls  for  fifty- 
two  or  fifty-four  a  week.  Union  wages  provide  a 
minimum  of  39  shillings  per  week  ($9.75) ;  the  entire 
force  of  the  co-operatives  receive  higher  amounts. 
In  ownership  and  operation  the  English  system  of  co- 
operation is  followed;  that  is,  the  stock  is  held  by 
trade  unions,  co-operative  and  other  societies,  and 
excellence  of  output  is  aimed  at  rather  than  dividends, 
while  profits  are  shared  with  the  employes.  The  so- 
ciety has  had  a  steadily  progressive  success  since  its 
first  year.  Its  dividend  of  trade  has  averaged  above 
$8,000  for  the  last  ten  years. 

Another  union  whose  headquarters  I  visited  was 
in  the  far  East  End,  the  Dockers  and  General  Labor 
Union,  of  which  Ben  Tillett  has  been  general  secretary 
twenty  years.  The  organization  grew  out  of  the 
dockers'  strike  of  England  nearly  a  quarter  of  a  cen- 
tury ago.  At  the  time  of  my  visit  the  Executive 
Board  and  the  business  agents  from  the  entire  country 
were  in  session,  and  about  thirty  of  them  awaited  to 
greet  me.  The  cordiality  of  their  welcome  was  only 
surpassed  in  their  shouts  for  American  trade  unionism 
and  the  American  people.  The  lot  of  the  dock  workers 
is  not  to-day  by  far  what  it  was  before  the  union  was 
organized.  The  union  statistics  just  issued  show 
that  its  benefit  features  are  highly  appreciated  by  the 
members.  Hours  of  labor  have  been  decreased,  wages 

34 


A    WEEK   IN    LONDON 

increased,  and,  comparatively  speaking,  their  social 
life  has  been  much  improved.  Eighty- two  members 
of  the  Dockers  and  General  Labor  Union  are  Borough 
Councilmen  and  Justices  of  the  Peace.  The  expres- 
sion of  the  board  members  with  regard  to  Ben  Tillett 
indicated  a  deep  feeling  of  respect  for  his  valued  ser- 
vices and  showed  his  popularity  after  long  years  of 
service.  Hale  and  hearty  "  Jim"  Wignalls  is  also  a 
member  of  the  Executive  Board.  Both  Wignalls  and 
Tillett  have  been  fraternal  delegates  from  the  British 
Trade  Union  Congress  to  conventions  of  the  American 
Federation  of  Labor. 

On  Thursday  I  visited  the  headquarters  of  the 
Amalgamated  Society  of  Engineers  and  there  saw  the 
Executive  Board  of  that  great  organization  of  ma- 
chinists. Many  subjects  were  discussed  affecting  the 
interests  of  the  workers,  particularly  the  relations 
between  the  machinists  of  America  and  Great  Britain 
and  other  countries.  Owing  to  the  awful  state  of  un- 
employment even  among  the  members  of  this  highly 
skilled  trade,  the  organization  had  lost  several  thou- 
sand members  during  the  past  year.  The  institution 
and  the  membership,  as  well  as  its  financial  standing, 
are,  however,  unimpaired. 

Later  in  the  afternoon  I  visited  the  headquarters 
of  the  Parliamentary  Committee  of  the  British  Trade 
Union  Congress.  This  committee  is  about  on  a  par 
with  the  Executive  Council  of  the  American  Federa- 
tion of  Labor.  The  subjects  of^strikes,  lockouts,  and 
boycotts  were  discussed  and  the  inevitable  question 
asked  me  what  would  be  the  outcome  of  the  decision 

35 


LABOR   IN   EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

and  sentence  imposed  upon  Frank  Morrison,  John 
Mitchell,  and  me  by  Judge  Wright,  of  the  Court  of  the 
District  of  Columbia.  It  is  quite  evident  that  the 
feeling  of  indignation  at  that  decision  and  sentence 
is  as  keen  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic  as  it  is  on  our 
own.  It  takes  not  a  little  of  my  time  to  try  to  ex- 
plain the  grounds,  or  rather  the  phantasy,  upon  which 
Judge  Wright  based  his  conclusions,  decision,  and 
sentence. 

The  most  interesting  spot  in  London  just  at  present 
to  a  touring  American  trade  unionist  is  the  House" 
of  Commons.  I  made  several  visits  to  it,  a  dinner 
being  given  me  in  one  of  its  restaurant  halls  one 
evening  by  the  Labor  Party  members  of  the  House 
and  on  another  evening  by  the  Parliamentary  Com- 
mittee of  the  Trade  Union  Congress.  On  the  first  of 
these  occasions,  thirty-odd  M.  P.'s  were  present.  All 
these  members  no  doubt  had  subscribed  to  the  imme- 
diate Labor  program,  but  the  diversity  of  their  views 
and  sentiments  regarding  present  activities,  as  well 
as  the  future  ideal  commonwealth,  was  not  con- 
cealed. I  was  given  the  opportunity  to  describe  our 
American  Federation  of  Labor,  and  to  tell  why  it  is 
and  what  it  is.  The  men  before  me  were  not  of  a 
character  to  wish  me  to  mince  my  words.  What  the 
truth  of  the  matter  required  me  to  say  may  not  have 
been  to  the  liking  of  some  of  them,  but  they  were  all 
prepared  to  take  my  utterances  in  good  part.  In 
fact,  the  dinner  proved  to  be,  not  a  mere  convivial 
function,  but  the  means  of  bringing  about  on  the  part 
of  my  hosts  a  better  understanding  of  the  spirit  and 

36 


A    WEEK   IN   LONDON 

methods  of  the  trade  unionists  of  the  United  States 
and  Canada,  who  are  doing  in  their  own  way  the  best 
possible  work  for  their  own  members  and  their  own 
countries.  I  am  not  prepared  at  this  stage  to  set 
down  definite  opinions  as  to  the  British  Trade  Union 
politics.  I  wish  to  pursue  my  inquiry  further,  but  I 
have  positive  views  regarding  the  necessity  of  the 
present  policies  of  American  trade  unionism,  and  it 
will  require  something  more  than  what  I  have  yet 
seen  or  learned  here  or  at  home  to  warrant  a  change  of 
front.  It  seemed  to  me  that  the  moment  was  at  hand 
at  that  dinner  to  state  clearly,  fully,  definitely,  and 
as  concisely  as  possible,  the  history,  struggles,  and 
policy  of  the  American  trade  union  movement. 

At  the  Parliamentary  Trade  Union  Congress  dinner, 
two  evenings  afterward,  all  but  five  men  present  had 
been  fraternal  delegates  at  American  labor  conven- 
tions. Naturally  the  event  was  largely  social  in  char- 
acter. The  enthusiasm  over  America  of  those  who 
had  attended  our  conventions  exhibited  itself  in  hearty 
words  of  greeting,  with  many  expressions  of  good-will 
for  the  delegates  they  had  met  in  various  cities  of  our 
country. 

One  incident  of  the  evening  seemed  to  be  an  echo  of 
what  had  been  called  forth  at  the  dinner  two  nights 
before.  It  was  the  speech  delivered  by  the  chairman 
of  the  Parliamentary  Committee,  David  J.  Shackleton. 
He  brought  up  one  illustration  after  another  of  the  un- 
wisdom of  those  extremists  among  social  reformers, 
both  in  and  outside  of  the  ranks  of  the  wage-earning 
masses,  who  continually  call  for  legislation  as  a  sub- 

37 


LABOR    IN    EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

stitute  for  trade  union  action.  For  example,  the  pre- 
vious week  had  seen  an  attempt  by  the  coal-mine 
owners  in  South  Wales  to  take  every  advantage  of  the 
eight-hour  Act  on  its  going  into  effect  July  i.  Claim- 
ing that  the  law  itself  set  aside  all  existing  agreements 
between  the  unions  and  themselves,  they  tried  to  en- 
force new  rules  preliminary  to  a  reduction  of  wages. 
The  men  threatened  a  strike  and  the  claim  was 
dropped.  As  the  Act  says  that  "the  eight  hours  per 
day  may  be  extended,"  on  not  more  than  sixty  days 
in  any  calendar  year  by  not  more  than  one  hour  a 
day,  "the  employers  decided  that  on  one  day  every 
week  the  men  should  work  nine  hours  instead  of 
eight."  This  clause,  the  men  argued,  was  optional  to 
both  parties,  and  as  they  had  a  strong  union,  well  pre- 
pared to  sustain  their  claim,  both  sides  concluded  to 
leave  the  matter  to  the  Court  of  Conciliation  for  settle- 
ment. Next  the  employers  made  a  demand  for  a 
second  shift  of  eight  hours  in  every  twenty-four. 
This  also  the  men  opposed;  night-work  was  an  un- 
necessary burden  upon  the  men;  the  gaseous  nature 
of  South  Wales  coal-mines  does  not  permit  a  mine  to 
be  operated  in  safety  sixteen  hours  daily;  the  ma- 
chinery for  mining,  safety,  and  ventilation  would  be 
overtaxed,  increasing  the  dangers  to  life.  For  a  week 
the  conferences  between  the  representatives  of  the 
miners  and  employers  continued,  and  the  attitude  of 
the  miners  gave  the  newspapers  of  Great  Britain  an 
opportunity  to  ascertain  the  difference  between  en- 
forcing a  law  according  to  the  interpretation  of  em- 
ployers and  operating  it  in  its  real  intent  in  the  in- 

38 


A    WEEK    IN    LONDON 

terests  of  the  workers.  The  miners  were  determined 
not  to  surrender  their  right  to  control  their  own  labor 
— and  won. 

As  a  spectator  in  the  House  of  Commons  I  spent 
an  hour  one  evening  listening  to  the  debates.  I  was 
given  a  seat  on  that  little  bench  for  eight  persons 
"under  the  gallery,"  where  a  select  few  constituents 
are  at  times  permitted  to  whisper  to  members  during 
the  progress  of  the  debates  on  bills  in  which  they  are 
especially  interested.  The  oak-panelled  hall,  as  we 
have  so  often  read,  is  the  reverse  of  spacious,  without 
desks,  and  with  two  long  sets  of  uncomfortable 
benches  running  lengthwise  and  mounting  upward 
from  an  open  quadrangular  area  in  the  middle.  To 
get  the  670  members  into  the  476  narrow  seats  being 
quite  impossible,  the  overflow  on  field-days  must  take 
to  the  galleries.  As  I  saw  it,  the  force  operating  the 
law-making  mill  was  about  350,  the  opposition  and 
the  Government  facing  each  other  on  opposite  rows 
of  benches,  except  that  the  Labor  and  the  Irish  mem- 
bers were  seated  on  the  same  side  with  the  opposition. 
On  the  first  of  the  lower  benches  are  the  heads  of  de- 
partments seated  in  line,  looking  squarely  into  the 
eyes  of  the  prominent  members  of  the  party  who  want 
their  places.  As  the  discussions  are  carried  on  mainly 
by  these  two  platoons,  the  scene  is  at  times  gladia- 
torial. Mr.  Lloyd-George  and  Mr.  Balfour  were  toss- 
ing repartees  and  compliments  from  time  to  time  dur- 
ing the  proceedings  which  I  witnessed.  The  famed 
House  of  Commons  "manner  of  speech"  was  so  closely 
adhered  to  that  individuality  in  addressing  the  House 

39 


LABOR   IN    EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

was  hardly  discernible.  This,  I  was  told,  was  espe- 
cially the  case  as  the  body  was  in  committee.  I  en- 
joyed the  acting  with  a  lively  appreciation.  The  ac- 
cepted code  of  mannerisms  for  a  speaker  in  this 
gentlemen's  debating  club  begins  with  an  apologetic 
demeanor  on  the  member  arising;  then  come  a  pro- 
pitiatory smile  and  a  hesitating  utterance.  As  he 
proceeds,  his  voice  in  thin  conversational  tone,  the 
speaker  frequently  stammers  "I,  I,  I,"  or  "ah,  ah, 
ah,"  meant  to  be  expressive  of  a  brain  working  pro- 
foundly but  diffidently  and  modestly.  As  if,  however, 
mocking  at  his  own  possible  seriousness,  a  vein  of 
flippancy  runs  through  the  honorable  member's  re- 
marks. I  am  told  that  any  display  of  feeling,  a  ring 
in  the  tones,  a  change  from  deep  to  high  voice,  would 
be  deemed  out  of  place ;  to  the  listening  members  be- 
longing the  right  of  showing  approval  or  disagreement. 
Those  who  side  with  the  speaker  sometimes  loudly  say 
"Hear!  Hear!" — rising  inflection — while  his  oppo- 
nents derisively  utter  "Oh!  Oh!" — falling  inflection. 
Wavelets  of  these  expressions,  which  occasionally 
swelled  to  waves,  accompanied  every  address  I  heard, 
however  brief.  A  feature  of  the  session  not  to  be 
overlooked  was  that  far  toward  the  ceiling,  in  the 
squeeze  of  a  small  gallery  behind  a  lattice-work,  sat 
a  few  women,  the  wives  of  members.  Since  the  suf- 
fragette "invasion"  of  the  House  of  Commons,  women 
who  are  not  related  to  members  are  not  admitted  to 
the  House. 

The  bill  under  discussion  was  the  one  that  sent  the 
hosts  defending  vested  rights  into  shock  and  shivers 

40 


A    WEEK   IN    LONDON 

-that  providing  for  a  taxation  of  land  values.  I 
was  much  interested  in  listening  to  the  speeches  on 
the  subject,  as  on  many  a  summer  and  winter  evening 
in  America,  through  the  course  of  the  last  thirty  years, 
I  have  heard  the  subject  more  than  broached  by  im- 
passioned Single-Taxers.  But  as  the  debate  on  va- 
rious clauses  of  the  bill  proceeded  it  became  apparent 
that  the  "confiscation"  so  feared  by  opponents  of  this 
tax  is  yet  many  a  long  day  off.  The  American  system 
of  taxing  real  estate  is  hardly  begun  in  England. 
"Accommodation"  land  —  that  lying  near  built-up 
districts  vacant  and  untilled — is  here  not  subject  to 
any  taxation  whatever.  The  bill  proposes  one  cent 
annually  on  every  five  dollars  of  its  capitalized  value. 
Farm  land  would  pay  a  small  percentage,  say  perhaps 
ten  or  twenty,  on  its  unearned  increment,  when  this 
has  passed  fifty  per  cent  beyond  its  present  existing 
price.  Is  it  anything  remarkable  that  I  was  occupied 
in  watching  the  manner  of  the  statesmen  present 
rather  than  being  absorbed  in  their  matter?  I  who 
had  heard  the  apostles  of  taxing  the  unearned  incre- 
ment one  hundred  per  cent,  every  bit  of  it!  The  bill 
is  no  doubt  a  good  beginning  for  the  taxation  of  the 
unearned  increment  of  the  land,  but  I  was  witnessing 
a  play  in  which  the  opposition  were  protesting  against 
being  "robbed"  of  the  land  their  forbears  either  stole 
or  had  bestowed  upon  them  through  privilege. 

As  I  passed  the  several  gates  to  the  House  of  Com- 
mons yards  I  saw  standing  by  them  patient,  rather 
woe-begone,  but  well-dressed  women,  wearing  the 
sashes  of  the  "Votes  for  Women"  League,  and  bear- 

41 


LABOR   IN    EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

ing  in  their  hands  scrolls  of  paper.  They  were  suf- 
fragettes, subjects  of  derision  for  unfriendly  passers- 
by,  objects  of  fear  to  the  Prime  Minister,  lions  to  the 
sight-seer,  and  apparently  friends  to  the  policemen  on 
guard.  Like  the  policemen,  the  women  go  on  duty 
several  hours,  and  then  are  relieved  by  others.  They 
hand  out  handbills  describing  their  unflagging  but 
vain  endeavors  to  get  Mr.  Asquith  to  receive  their  pe- 
tition. One  day  they  besieged  the  gates  during  the 
session  eight  hours,  another  ten  hours,  another  thir- 
teen. They  have  announced  that  they  will  keep  up 
their  mute  protest  during  all  the  time  the  House  of 
Commons  remains  in  session. 

The  deepest  impression  that  England  made  upon 
me  came  from  its  poverty.  True,  I  had  not  the  time 
to  measure  up  and  compare  the  data  of  its  wealth,  its 
middle-class  comfort,  its  institutions  of  social  helpful- 
ness, but  everywhere  are  thrust  before  the  traveller's 
eyes  scenes  of  deplorable  misery.  If  one  takes  a  cab  in 
any  street  in  London  a  panting  boy  or  a  man  suddenly 
appears  and  goes  through  the  form  of  proffering  the 
unsolicited  service  of  closing  or  opening  the  cab  door. 
Frequently  there  are  so  many  of  these  men  and  boys 
that  they  hustle  with  one  another  to  get  first  in  going 
through  the  form.  Of  course  I  have  seen  similar  plays 
for  pennies  in  the  large  cities  of  the  United  States, 
but  these  have  been  in  front  of  prominent  hotels  or 
restaurants.  In  England  it  seems  as  if  there  is  no 
place  where  you  may  go  in  which  a  poor  fellow  is  not 
immediately  upon  your  heels  craving  for  something. 
Indeed,  if  one  halts  for  a  moment  here  to  consider  his 

42 


A    WEEK    IN    LONDON 

way,  or  stops  at  a  door  of  a  business  house  to  look  at 
its  signs  before  entering,  he  hears  a  voice  at  his  side 
asking  for  the  "job"  of  giving  him  information. 
Subterfuges  of  all  kinds  are  employed  by  tattered  and 
hungry-looking  men  to  get  a  penny  without  actually 
putting  forth  their  hands  to  beg.  Some  poor  fellows 
follow  cabs  for  miles  to  earn  a  sixpence  in  carrying 
the  travellers'  trunks  into  the  boarding-houses.  The 
benches  in  the  parks,  on  the  river  embankments,  at 
the  little  triangles  of  intersecting  streets,  have  their 
ragged  human  derelicts  sitting  about  in  lines  and 
groups.  In  the  newspapers  and  in  the  average  con- 
versation it  is  not  uncommon  to  see  and  hear  men- 
tion of  unemployment  as  an  accepted  chronic  feature 
in  England's  industrial  and  social  life.  The  trade 
unions  pay  out  large  sums  annually  to  their  own  un- 
employed. Wage  scales  seem  not  to  be  seriously 
threatened,  as  one  might  think,  from  the  presence  of 
the  masses  of  the  very  poor,  for  many  of  these  have 
been  rendered  unemployable  by  their  long  period  of 
idleness  and  misery.  Physically,  thousands  have  be- 
come unfit  and  are  almost  irreclaimable  from  idle 
habits.  Vice  and  the  result  of  idleness  may  find 
them  ready  victims  to  death.  Poverty  is  on  view  in 
all  parts  of  London;  slum  back  streets  border  on 
fashionable  thoroughfares;  figures  in  dirt  and  rags 
slouch  along  amid  the  gay  and  well-attired  prome- 
naders  of  the  parks. 

Men  who  as  representatives  of  organized  labor  have 
constantly  before  them  questions  of  deprivation  and 
idleness  have  imparted  to  me  their  views  and  con- 

43 


LABOR   IN   EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

elusions,  summarizing  verbally  the  general  situation. 
In  brief,  I  may  consequently  say  that  what  the 
stranger  sees  of  the  awful  exposed  destitution  of 
London  fairly  illustrates  what  is  in  the  background 
or  entirely  concealed  from  him.  Any  interpretation 
of  the  measures  which  Parliament  and  the  Councils 
take  up,  or  which  are  proposed  by  social  reformers,  to 
be  correct,  must  be  governed  by  this  one  leading  fact 
in  England — its  myriads  of  empty  stomachs,  ill-clad 
bodies,  and  idle  though  by  nature  productive  human 
machines.  With  regret  I  must  confess  I  came  away 
from  London  with  a  sense  of  depression.  From  time 
to  time  since,  those  numbers  of  demoralized,  degraded 
objects  which  ought  to  be  men  and  women  have 
formed  in  my  mind's  eye  a  procession  moving  along 
together  past  me,  mournful,  hopeless,  repellent,  a  dis- 
grace to  our  boasted  civilization. 


FRANCE— ITS  MANY  PARTIES  AND  MOVEMENTS 

PARIS,  July  17,  1909. 

THE  various  passing  phases  of  trade  unionism  in 
France,  as  coupled  with  revolutionary  political  pro- 
jects, form  a  stock  theme  for  writers  having  all  sorts 
of  opinions  on  the  subject,  from  the  dreamer  who  sees 
in  one  or  another  of  the  attendant  circumstances  a 
promise  of  the  fulfilment  of  his  ideal  state,  to  the 
cynical  newspaper  man  who  gets  from  the  continuous 
performance  of  the  contesting  leaders  an  endless  sup- 
ply of  "copy."  There  is  always  something  new  to 
chronicle,  something  fresh  to  be  offered  in  comment. 
I  cannot,  of  course,  offer  in  this  letter  the  confident 
conclusions  to  which  one  might  arrive  after  an  ex- 
haustive inquiry  into  the  present  phase  of  French 
trade  unionism  and  politics,  but  my  opportunities 
during  the  last  week  have  been  unusually  good  for 
seeing  some  of  the  governing  facts  in  the  situation. 
I  have  been  in  touch  with  the  leading  characters  in  the 
French  labor  movement,  in  and  out  of  office,  have 
spoken  at  an  important  meeting  where  representa- 
tives of  all  sides  were  present  and  free  to  ask  me 
questions,  and  have  been  interviewed  by  a  swarm  of 
newspaper  men  who  waited  at  my  hotel  to  make 

45 


LABOR   IN    EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

articles  out  of  me,  to  earn  their  honest  living,  and 
whom  in  turn  I  have  interviewed. 

My  short  trip  in  France  now  over,  with  many  events 
occurring  daily  that  had  some  relation  with  my  mis- 
sion, I  feel  called  upon  first  to  say  that  the  cordiality 
with  which  I  was  treated  on  all  occasions,  most  gratify- 
ing as  it  was,  left  me  with  the  feeling  that  the  organ- 
ized French  workmen  recognize  the  significance  to 
themselves  of  the  American  labor  movement  and  wish 
to  learn  the  principles  which  have  been  among  the 
causes  of  our  advancement.  While  in  my  talks,  in 
public  and  private,  I  was  called  upon  to  explain  our 
methods,  at  times  to  that  necessary  extent  which  em- 
bodied criticism  of  the  sort  of  politics  that  hamper 
the  French  labor  movement,  I  was  listened  to  in  every 
instance  with  attention  and  respect.  There  was  shown 
very  little  of  that  spirit  of  wrangling  and  denunciation 
that  has  unfortunately  characterized  those  leaders  of 
Socialism  in  America  who  without  sound  reason  pre- 
tend to  believe  that  they  are  promoting  the  same 
cause  as  the  Socialists  of  Europe. 

The  reader  may  at  once  get  a  point  of  observation 
which,  whether  entirely  correct  or  not,  will  enable  him 
to  survey  the  situation  as  a  whole  if  I  begin  by  stating 
the  views  of  M.  Rene  Viviani,  Minister  of  Labor  and 
Member  of  the  French  Cabinet,  as  he  gave  them  to  me 
in  an  interview  on  Thursday,  the  morning  after  the 
national  celebration  of  the  fall  of  the  Bastile,  July  14. 
His  are,  of  course,  the  views  of  the  present  adminis- 
tration, or,  as  they  say  here,  Government  of  France. 
I  was  presented  to  M.  Viviani  formally  in  his  office 

46 


FRANCE 

by  M.  Charles  Barrat,  one  of  the  investigators  of  the 
department,  to  whom  the  usual  courtesies  to  strangers 
had  been  extended  by  me  last  year  at  the  American 
Federation  of  Labor  headquarters  in  Washington. 

M.  Viviani  is  an  enthusiastic  admirer  of  American 
trade  unionism.  After  the  greetings  I  asked  him 
what  grounds  there  were  for  the  statements  I  had  fre- 
quently heard  before  and  since  coming  to  France,  that 
his  Government  was  opposed  to  working-class  organ- 
izations to  such  an  extent  that  on  the  occurrence  of  a 
strike  of  any  character  the  authorities  might  be  ex- 
pected to  order  the  intervention  of  the  army  or  pro- 
vide a  supply  of  strike  breakers.  M.  Viviani  replied 
that  the  charge  was  baseless.  Never  had  the  present 
Government  interfered  on  any  occasion  when  the 
strike  was  between  a  private  employer  and  his  men, 
except  when  actual  violence  had  taken  place,  with 
attacks  upon  persons  and  destruction  of  property.  It 
was  only  when  Government  employes  had  gone  on 
strike,  endangering  the  public  safety,  that  soldiers 
were  sent  to  the  scene  or  men  hired  to  take  the  places 
of  the  strikers.  "In  these  cases,"  said  he,  "the  Na- 
tion being  the  employer,  the  suspension  of  an  essential 
public  business  and  the  stability  of  society  were 
threatened.  A  strike  of  Government  functionaries 
could  not  be  tolerated.  The  work  of  postmen  and 
Government  telegraph  operators,  for  example,  must 
go  on  uninterruptedly  if  a  country  is  to  maintain  or- 
der, peace,  communication  from  place  to  place,  pub- 
licity of  current  events  and  those  conditions  of  com- 
merce in  which  above  all  other  classes  the  masses  of 

47 


LABOR    IN    EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

working-men  have  a  vital  interest.  The  present 
Government,  after  finding  it  necessary  to  put  an  end 
to  the  strike  of  the  postmen  and  the  telegraphers, 
made  its  explanation  to  Parliament  and  was  sus- 
tained in  its  action,  and  it  now  promises  to  continue 
the  policy  thus  far  followed.  The  malcontents  were 
led  by  politicians  holding  extreme,  impractical,  and 
inconsistent  views.  They  were  trying  to  mislead  the 
working-classes  while  often  promoting  their  own  po- 
litical fortunes." 

As  to  the  "C.  G.  T."  ("Confederation  Generale  du 
Travail, ' '  General  Federation  of  Labor) ,  it  by  no  means 
represented  the  majority  of  the  organized  industrial 
workers  of  the  country,  in  M.  Viviani's  opinion.  By 
an  unfair  system  of  voting  at  its  delegate  sessions,  a 
comparatively  small  number  of  extremists  controlled 
its  actions.  The  large  and  stable  national  unions, 
such  as  the  Typographical,  the  Metal  Workers,  the 
Railroad  Men,  the  Miners,  were  thus  outvoted  by 
delegates  representing,  in  cases,  but  a  few  hundred 
members  in  a  union.  The  C.  G.  T.  itself  represented 
only  about  one-third  of  the  union  members  of  France. 

"The  uninformed  readers  of  certain  French  daily 
newspapers,"  M.  Viviani  continued,  "might  be  led  to 
believe  that  the  country  is  in  a  constant  state  of  pro- 
test and  disorder  arising  from  the  Government's  atti- 
tude on  the  labor  question.  Not  so.  Much  attention 
is  given  the  disturbers  by  the  sensational  press  because 
of  politics  and  not  as  a  result  of  a  real  gravity  in  the 
situation.  France,  in  general,  is  at  peace  industrially. 
The  unions  are  quietly  but  persistently  pursuing  their 

48 


FRANCE 

work  of  organizing  and  promoting  the  welfare  of  their 
members ;  the  scenes  of  outbreaks  are  usually  in  Paris 
and  occasionally  in  a  few  other  industrial  centres. 
The  Government  has  been  more  sympathetic  in  its 
efforts  on  behalf  of  the  working-classes  than  any  of  its 
predecessors.  The  establishment  of  this  department, 
now  in  the  third  year  of  its  existence,  earnestly  striving 
to  be  of  service  to  labor  and  to  the  country,  is  one  of 
the  best  proofs  of  my  statements.  The  Cabinet  will 
continue  its  present  course,  depending  upon  the  com- 
mon sense  not  only  of  the  French  people  generally,  but 
of  the  working-people  of  France  particularly,  for  sup- 
port. " 

M.  Viviani  really  impressed  me  with  his  sincerity. 
I  differ  with  him  strongly  as  to  the  right  of  the  work- 
ing-people in  any  employment,  whether  private  or 
public,  to  cease  work.  The  right  to  cease  work  distin- 
guishes the  free  man  from  the  slave,  who  must  work 
regardless  of  the  conditions  imposed  upon  him  by  his 
employer,  whether  that  employer  be  an  individual,  a 
firm,  a  corporation  or  the  State,  but  in  France,  as  in 
many  countries,  our  own  included,  the  pernicious 
tendency  of  thought  among  many  employers  is  to  tie 
the  man  to  his  work. 

At  M.  Viviani 's  mention  of  the  general  stable  char- 
acter of  the  unions  in  France  outside  of  the  few  big 
industrial  centers,  I  recalled  my  visit  to  Calais,  with 
its  many  pleasant  features.  When,  with  my  little 
party,  I  landed  there  on  coming  from  Dover  accom- 
panied by  Secretary  Appleton  of  the  General  Federa- 
tion of  Trades  of  Great  Britain,  we  were  met  by  a 

4  49 


LABOR    IN    EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

score  of  delegates  of  the  Lace  Makers'  Union,  which  is 
strong  in  the  northeast  of  France.  In  appearance  and 
dress  these  men  were  of  the  very  best  type  of  wage 
workers.  Their  union,  they  explained  to  me,  had 
been  modeled  on  the  English  system,  and  they  had 
mainly  followed  thorough  trade-union  methods  in  in- 
creasing wages  and  otherwise  improving  their  con- 
ditions as  workers.  Their  wage  scale  now  compares 
well  with  that  of  the  English  workmen  of  the  same 
trade.  At  Caudry,  especially,  where  the  industry  has 
grown  considerably  in  recent  years,  the  union  has  at 
the  same  time  developed  strength.  At  present  em- 
ployers and  employed  are  both  doing  well.  The 
Mayor  of  Calais,  who  was  present,  and  some  of  the 
Councilmen  are  union  members.  They  have  helped 
in  the  improvement  of  the  municipality,  sufficiently 
well,  in  fact,  to  be  re-elected  to  office.  Some  of  these 
Councilmen  call  themselves  Socialists,  in  which  case 
the  name  does  about  as  much  good,  or  about  as  much 
harm,  as  it  does  in  the  case  of  the  voluntary  co-opera- 
tive society  of  Calais,  which  also  goes  by  the  title  of 
Socialist.  In  either  case,  work,  beneficial  in  charac- 
ter, is  done  for  the  present  day.  There  have  been 
strikes  in  Calais  at  times;  but  neither  unionism  nor 
the  public  welfare  has  thereby  suffered  seriously.  On 
the  contrary,  unionism  abolished  grievances  and 
brought  about  improved  conditions.  Incidental  to 
such  few  strikes  as  have  occurred,  agitation  has  been 
lively  and  some  friction  with  the  police  has  occurred, 
but  neither  unionism  nor  the  public  welfare  has  there- 
by suffered  seriously.  France  could  very  well  get 


FRANCE 

along  with  such  trade  unionism  as  is  practised  by  the 
lace-makers  at  Calais  and  the  other  practical  unions 
which  obtain  in  many  trades. 

The  morning  I  reached  Paris  Le  Matin  contained 
a  letter  from  L.  Niel,  who  had  just  resigned  as  secre- 
tary of  the  "C.  G.  T."  in  consequence  of  a  decision  by 
its  delegates  contrary  to  his  convictions,  rendering  it 
obligatory  upon  himself  to  quit  the  office.  M.  Niel 
described  the  "C.  G.  T."  in  his  letter  as  ruled  by  poli- 
tics. While  admitting  that  he  was  a  Socialist,  he 
denied  that  he  had  ever  permitted  his  political  opinions 
to  influence  his  trade  unionism.  "The  Anarchists," 
he  said,  now  in  full  power  in  the  central  organization, 
asserted  that  "  their  unionism  was  but  Anarchism  un- 
der another  name.""  "Politics,"  wrote  M.  Niel,  "has 
always  been  a  poison  to  trade  unionism."  "Never 
was  trade  unionism  in  France  so  invested  with  politics 
as  to-day."  "In  1906,  the  C.  G.  T.,  at  the  Congress 
of  Amiens,  had  solemnly  interdicted  all  unionists  from 
introducing  in  the  organization  politics  of  any  kind 
whatever."  But  while  this  interdiction  still  remained 
in  the  text  of  the  rules  the  fact  in  practice  was  other- 
wise. "Unionism  has  closed  the  front  door  to  the 
Socialistic  virus,  to  open  the  back  door  to  the  Anar- 
chistic poison."  And  now  the  more  solid  unions  were 
about  to  try  to  regenerate  the  labor  movement.  The 
miners,  railroad  men,  printers,  textile  workers,  com- 
mercial employes,  and  others,  were  about  to  organize 
a  Central  Union  Committee  to  promote  trade  unionism 
without  party  politics. 

M.  Niel,  who  is  a  union  printer  and  a  Socialist,  had 


LABOR   IN   EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

written  a  letter  published  in  M.  Jean  Jaures's  paper, 
I' Humanit^,  on  July  6,  in  which  he  spoke  of  my  coming 
visit  and  described  the  work  of  American  trade  union- 
ism. He  said  it  was  more  practical  than  ideal;  more 
conservative  than  revolutionary.  He  addressed  a 
welcome  to  me  as  the  representative  of  the  American 
Federation  of  Labor.  Hence  it  is  quite  significant 
both  of  the  French  spirit  of  hospitality  toward  Amer- 
ica and  of  the  intention  of  the  leaders  and  followers  of 
the  various  groups  in  the  C.  G.  T.  to  show  that  they 
were  willing  to  hear  me  explain  my  mission,  that  in 
La  Voix  du  Peupk  of  about  the  same  date  M.  Georges 
Yvetot,  another  union  printer,  who  is  an  Anarchist, 
and  M.  Niel's  antagonist,  also  welcomed  me  warmly, 
saying  in  his  letter  that  the  occasion  of  my  address 
before  the  C.  G.  T.  would  be  "salutary  instruction,  for 
various  reasons.''  I  may  add  that  during  my  stay  in 
Paris  M.  Niel  and  M.  Yvetot  were  among  those  who 
were  indefatigable  in  showing  me  and  my  friends  all 
possible  hospitality.  And  when  they  met  in  the 
presence  of  us  Americans  they  were  not  only  respect- 
ful to  us  but  polite  to  each  other. 

The  meeting  of  the  C.  G.  T.  to  which  I  had  been  in- 
vited I  found,  from  the  newspapers  and  otherwise,  was 
attracting  general  attention  from  all  that  part  of  Paris 
which  has  an  interest  in  social  problems.  What  was 
going  to  take  place  ?  What  would  the  radicals  present 
say  or  do?  Friday,^ the  evening  of  the  occasion,  I 
went  to  the  hall  of  1'Egalitaire,  Rue  Sambre-et-Meuse, 
accompanied  by  half  a  dozen  American  friends  and 
also  by  committees  representing  various  shades  of 

52 


FRANCE 

French  working-class  opinion.  When  the  meeting 
was  opened  about  five  hundred  persons  were  present, 
the  hall  being  packed,  with  many  standing.  I  was 
afterward  told  that  most  of  the  trade  union  and  many 
Socialist  and  Anarchist  leaders  of  Paris  were  present. 
M.  Thuillier,  secretary  of  the  Paris  Central  Labor 
Union  (Union  des  Syndicats),  presided,  while  M.  Jou- 
haux,  M.  Niel's  successor  to  the  secretaryship  of  the 
C.  G.  T.,  was  vice-president.  M.  Yvetot  introduced 
me,  his  address  being  cordial  and  well  advised  in  every 
sentence.  He  asked  for  a  fair  hearing  for  me,  and 
earnestly  said  that  no  doubt  all  had  something  to 
learn  from  the  great,  successful  American  labor  move- 
ment. No  applause  whatever  greeted  me  as  I  arose 
to  address  the  meeting.  But  during  more  than  an 
hour,  with  perhaps  not  a  score  of  persons  in  the  au- 
dience who  understood  me,  a  respectful  and  patient 
attitude  was  maintained.  Evidently  the  audience 
knew  or  imagined  that  I  had  something  to  say,  and 
was  saying  it  to  its  members,  that  they  wanted  to 
hear.  When  I  had  finished  a  former  member  of  the 
American  Ladies'  Garment  Workers'  Union,  Mr.  D. 
Mikol,  of  Boston,  who  had  taken  longhand  notes, 
rapidly  translated  my  entire  address  into  French. 
Several  persons  present  who  understood  both  lan- 
guages say  that  the  performance  of  his  task  was  re- 
markably well  done  —  though,  as  it  turned  out,  in 
speaking  he  made  one  or  two  slips  that  were  instantly 
pounced  upon  by  critics  among  the  so-called  "intel- 
lectuals," on  hand  with  pencils  and  notebooks.  As 
Mr.  Mikol  proceeded  in  an  animated  manner,  applause 

53 


LABOR   IN    EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

became  frequent.  I  could  perceive  that  while  certain 
groups  were  approving  those  expressions  which  were 
broad  enough  to  gratify  all  whose  hopes  in  mankind 
contemplate  a  higher  and  higher  plan  for  labor,  other 
groups  were  reserving  manifestations  of  sympathy  for 
the  passages  in  which  I  stood  up  for  true  trade  union- 
ism. Very  hearty  applause  came  with  the  close  of 
Mr.  Mikol's  translation.  When  his  critics  got  from 
him  his  explanation  that  in  his  almost  instantaneous 
interpretation  of  sentence  by  sentence  he  had,  as  they 
pointed  out,  employed  a  phrase  or  two  not  wholly 
warranted  by  a  letter-perfect  adherence  to  the  original, 
they  trained  their  guns  upon  me,  shotted  with  the  stale 
shibboleths  and  theories  of  an  exploded  Socialism. 
What  had  I  to  say  about  the  "suppression  "  (abolition), 
of  the  employing  class  and  the  abolition  of  the  wage 
system  ?  What  about  the  general  strike  ?  How  as  to 
antimilitarism  and  antipatriotism  ?  Did  not  the  trust 
in  America  simply  raise  prices  when  the  unions  raised 
wages,  etc.  ?  In  brief  I  replied  that  I  was  not  sure  I 
wanted  the  wage  system  abolished;  I  should  first  like 
to  see  at  closer  range  some  of  the  possible  results  of 
the  project  of  abolishing  the  undertakings,  enterprise, 
and  management  of  the  highly  developed  industrial 
system  of  our  time.  As  to  the  general  strike,  its  utility 
was  questionable,  but  in  any  event  in  the  present  state 
of  labor  organization  in  France  the  comparatively  few 
organized  working  people  were  doing  little  more  than 
talking  about  it.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  continual 
discussion  of  the  general  strike  had  a  tendency  to  keep 
workmen  away  from  instead  of  being  attracted  to  the 

54 


FRANCE 

unions.  In  any  event  it  would  be  necessary  to  organ- 
ize first  for  immediate  material  improvement,  to  be 
enabled  to  conduct  lesser  strikes  to  a  successful  result, 
before  making  the  subject  of  a  general  strike  the  chief 
issue  of  labor.  The  questions  of  antimilitarism,  anti- 
patriotism,  and  the  like,  were  not  questions  in  which 
the  American  working-men  had  been  interested,  but 
I  was  certain  that  if  I  were  a  Frenchman  I  would  up- 
hold my  country  and  not  have  it  placed  at  the  mercy 
of  others.  I  would  not  insist  that  my  country  should 
disarm  while  other  countries  were  arming  to  the  teeth, 
but  I  would  ever  earnestly  strive  for  general  disarma- 
ment and  international  peace.  I  showed  that  though 
misery  exists  in  all  countries,  it  is  a  fact  incontro- 
vertible that  misery  is  less  and  the  conditions  of  the 
workers  best  in  those  countries  where  wages  are  high- 
est and  the  hours  of  labor  least,  that  is,  where  a  nor- 
mal workday  has  been  obtained.  I  closed  my  part  in 
the  evening's  proceedings  by  urging  all  to  cease  their 
cross-purposes,  to  leave  partisan  politics  to  its  field 
outside  the  labor  organizations,  and  to  come  together 
for  the  clearly  defined  purposes  of  trade  unionism — 
for  the  material,  social,  and  moral  uplift  of  all  the 
workers,  of  all  the  people. 

When  the  meeting  broke  up  none  of  the  leaders 
among  my  hearers  seemed  disposed  to  quarrel  with 
me.  Nearly  all  expressed  pleasure,  congratulated 
me,  and  shook  hands  with  me.  M.  Auguste  Keufer, 
for  a  quarter  of  a  century  the  most  prominent  man  in 
the  Typographical  Union  of  France,  was  delighted. 
Pataud,  of  the  Electrical  Workers,  wanted  the  ad- 

55 


LABOR    IN   EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

dress,  which  had  been  taken  down  stenographically, 
to  be  printed  in  full,  to  study  its  points.  Niel  and  his 
adherents  saw  much  to  learn  from  American  trade 
unionism.  Yvetot,  the  ruling  spirit  of  the  C.  G.  T., 
became  even  more  cordial  in  his  friendly  attentions. 
Thuillier  and  others  accompanied  our  little  American 
group  homeward. 

The  accounts  of  the  meeting  (which,  following  the 
usual  practice  of  the  French  press,  were  published  in 
the  various  newspapers  in  a  straggling  way  in  the 
course  of  several  days)  were,  so  far  as  I  saw  them, 
sympathetic;  the  writers  recognized  that  I  had  en- 
deavored to  state  facts,  putting  them  before  the  French 
workman  in  the  light  of  experience  for  the  lessons  they 
might  teach.  They  saw  that  America  really  has  some- 
thing great  in  trade  unionism  to  show  France  and 
other  countries.  Such  conservative  papers  as  Le 
Temps,  besides  describing  the  meeting  in  several 
columns,  gave  it  sober  leading  editorials.  Le  Temps, 
in  summing  up  its  conclusions,  said:  "Will  the  French 
trade  unionists  some  day  understand  the  beneficent 
role  the  unions  can  play  in  the  economic  and  social 
organization  ?  The  trade  unions  ought  to  be  a  part  in 
the  organism  of  society,  not  a  ward  machine  directed 
against  it.  It  ought  to  help  in  regulating  the  relations 
between  the  categories  of  production,  the  employers 
and  the  employed.  It  could  be  the  agent  of  a  benefi- 
cent collaboration,  a  source  of  common  prosperity, 
instead  of  a  cause  of  division  between  men  and  of  an 
industrial  paralysis." 

Revolutionary,  liberal,  and  conservative  sheets  all 

56 


FRANCE 

cited  the  principal  points  of  my  theme :  The  early 
failures  in  America  to  mingle  political  party  creeds 
with  trade  unionism;  the  simplicity  and  unlimited 
scope  of  our  organizations;  the  main  features  of  our 
Federation;  its  clear  and  practical  objects;  its  great- 
ness in  development;  its  achievements  in  advancing 
wages,  reducing  the  hours  of  the  workday,  protecting 
women  and  children,  obtaining  the  co-operation  of 
the  National  and  State  Labor  Departments,  improv- 
ing conditions  in  the  workshop,  factory,  and  mine, 
and  performing  the  duties  of  great  benefit  soci- 
eties. 

In  bidding  au  revoir  to  Paris — for  I  expect  to  be 
here  again  at  the  end  of  August  to  attend  the  Inter- 
national Secretariat  Congress — I  look  back  over  my 
brief  visit  to  the  beautiful  city  with  genuine  satisfac- 
tion, in  spite  of  the  hard  work  which  has  occupied 
nearly  my  entire  time.  Aside  from  the  exceptions  to 
be  expected  in  certain  forms  of  business  devoted  to 
gathering  in  the  cash  of  tourists,  the  people  of  Paris 
seem  to  me  to  be  good-natured,  obliging,  sincerely 
polite,  of  a  fine  intelligence,  ever  ready  with  a  sym- 
pathetic word  and  smile.  The  committeemen  who 
acted  as  my  hosts  anticipated  every  wish  of  the  little 
party  with  which  I  travel.  My  short  visit  has  shown 
me  a  wonderful  city — a  hard-working  city  as  a  back- 
ground to  the  city  of  pleasure  seen  by  the  stranger 
with  little  opportunity  to  look  deeper  than  the  surface ; 
a  city,  in  the  main,  of  earnest  people,  characterized 
by  a  commendable  pride  in  their  personal  appearance, 
by  the  expressions  of  many  sentiments  that  add 

57 


LABOR   IN    EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

happiness  to  life,  and  in  general  by  a  charm  of 
manner  that  must  at  bottom  spring  from  goodness 
of  heart  and  kindly  intentions  toward  their  neigh- 
bor, whoever  for  the  passing  hour  that  neighbor 
may  be. 


BRUSSELS,   ANTWERP,   AMSTERDAM,   ETC. 

BERLIN,  July  30,  1909. 

DURING  the  last  eight  days,  besides  making  flying 
visits  to  The  Hague  and  Bremen,  I  have  stopped  over  a 
day  or  two  each  in  Brussels,  Antwerp,  Amsterdam,  and 
Hamburg.  In  the  latter  cities  the  time  at  my  dis- 
posal permitted  me  to  attend  labor  meetings  and  to 
have  interviews  with  local  leaders  in  the  movement, 
some  of  whom  were  old  friends.  I  also  obtained  in 
each  place  a  hasty  glance  at  some  of  the  harsher  feat- 
ures of  a  society  which  compels  its  victims  to  protest, 
as  well  as  at  some  of  the  results  of  the  methods  by 
which  they  protest. 

Poverty  such  as  exists  in  Belgium  and  Holland  can 
hardly  be  conceived  by  the  average  dweller  in  an 
American  city.  In  our  country  the  able-bodied  man 
may  generally  see  some  light  of  hope  ahead.  Work 
for  the  present  may  be  toilsome,  the  quarters  one  lives 
in  uninviting,  the  pay  small,  and  occasionally  unem- 
ployment is  depressing.  But  on  seeing  how  the  very 
poor  live  and  work  in  Brussels,  Antwerp,  and  Amster- 
dam, one  obtains  a  view  of  the  truth  that  poverty  has 
indeed  most  striking  differences  of  degree  in  its  depri- 
vations and  struggles.  In  New  York  even  dire  pov- 
erty reckons  its  purchases  in  cents  or  nickels,  and  it 

59 


LABOR    IN    EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

looks  forward  to  earning  dollars ;  in  Amsterdam  coins 
circulate  that  equal  in  value  a  fifth  of  an  American 
cent,  and  families  subsist  for  a  week  on  an  outlay  that 
the  smallest  gold  piece  might  cancel. 

It  is  to  be  accepted  as  true  that  any  observer  who 
wishes  to  make  a  point  of  the  existence  of  poverty 
anywhere  can  find  the  material  for  his  thesis.  Infirm 
old  age,  helpless  infancy,  the  lame,  the  halt,  the  blind 
—  physical  human  feebleness  in  various  forms  every- 
where— brings  to  the  strong  the  duty  of  succor.  But 
when  one  sees,  not  weakness  but  strength,  and  not 
only  individuals  but  masses,  habitually  struggling  for 
the  barest  subsistence,  he  can  but  find  himself  asking 
why  such  a  state  of  things  should  be  so  and  what  can 
be  done  in  the  way  of  relief.  In  this  spirit  of  inquiry 
I  put  on  record  some  of  the  evidences  of  a  chronic 
misery  among  the  masses  which  I  have  witnessed  dur- 
ing the  last  week. 

Brussels  has  a  large  co-operative  establishment  or- 
ganized, managed,  and  patronized  by  working-people. 
Its  headquarters  is  the  "Maison  du  Peuple."  While 
examining  the  details  of  this  voluntary  association  for 
mutual  assistance,  mention  was  made  to  me  that  a 
district  in  which  "home  industry"  was  carried  on 
was  close  by.  A  co-operator  acquainted  in  the  neigh- 
borhood volunteered  to  show  our  party  how  the 
dwellers  in  the  house  lived  and  gained  their  bread. 
First  going  to  a  particular  house  with  which  our  guide 
was  best  acquainted  we  found  it  to  be  an  old  one,  but 
of  substantial  build.  A  faucet  in  the  narrow  entrance 
court  was  the  only  supply  of  water  for  all  the  occu- 

60 


BRUSSELS,  ANTWERP,  AMSTERDAM,  ETC. 

pants.  The  narrow,  steep  stairway  had  just  been 
washed  and  the  walls  calcimined.  We  mounted  to 
the  attic  to  find  two  small  rooms,  the  larger  about  ten 
by  eight  feet,  the  smaller  eight  by  six,  the  only  day- 
light to  each  being  admitted  through  a  scuttle  formed 
of  a  single  pane  of  glass.  In  the  living-room  were 
the  wife,  a  bright  young  woman,  and  four  small  chil- 
dren, housed-pale  and  pasty-faced.  A  bed,  a  crib,  a 
cooking-stove,  a  cupboard,  and  a  few  other  household 
effects  left  little  space  in  which  one  could  move.  In 
the  man's  workroom  a  tailor's  table  took  up  nearly 
half  the  space.  Beside  it  was  a  crib.  The  man,  tall 
and  well  made,  had  an  intelligent  face.  Directly  un- 
der the  scuttle  of  this  small  room  stood  an  easel.  On 
it  was  a  painted  flower  piece,  nearly  finished  and  quite 
well  done.  His  regular  work  was  custom  tailoring 
to  order.  His  condition  was  therefore  better,  it  was 
explained  to  me,  than  that  of  the  tailors  who  work  in 
their  homes  as  employes  for  others.  Trade  was  dull 
for  the  moment,  and  our  host  had  turned  to  painting, 
at  which,  our  guide  said,  he  had  once  had  a  fair  success. 
The  rental  for  this  attic  space  was  $2.50  per  month, 
the  property  being  owned  by  the  city  and  soon  to 
be  torn  down.  Formerly  the  rental  was  $3.60.  The 
clothing  of  the  family,  especially  of  the  children,  was 
scant  and  of  the  least  possible  cost. 

Those  in  a  position  to  know  and  whose  trustworthi- 
ness is  unquestioned  declared  that  at  least  17  percent 
of  the  industries  of  Belgium  is  carried  on  in  the  homes, 
mostly  in  the  bedrooms  of  the  workers,  the  majority 
living  in  greater  squalor  than  what  was  here  shown  me. 

61 


LABOR   IN   EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

To  leave  this  scene  for  the  moment  and  to  take  up 
others.  At  Scheveningen,  Holland's  Atlantic  City,  a 
few  miles  from  The  Hague,  our  party,  after  purchasing 
postal  cards  in  a  little  shop,  had  some  talk  with  two 
of  its  young  saleswomen.  As  some  of  their  statements 
were  interesting,  I  took  up  the  conversation,  being 
acquainted  with  the  Dutch  language,  the  speech  of 
my  ancestors.  These  girls  worked  for  four  gulden  a 
week  ($1.60),  out  of  which  they  paid  for  board  two 
and  one-half  gulden,  or  one  dollar  per  week.  Their 
working  hours  were  from  eight  o'clock  in  the  morn- 
ing until  ten  at  night,  including  Sundays.  They 
were  neat  in  appearance — were  obliged  to  be.  They 
ate  their  breakfast  at  home.  They  added:  "We  are 
not  permitted  to  take  time  to  eat  anything  from  the 
moment  we  enter  the  store  at  eight  o'clock  in  the 
morning  until  we  reach  home,  about  half  past  ten  in 
the  evening.  Then  we  have  supper,  and  retire  for  the 
night.  We  bring  some  bread  with  us  from  home,  and 
as  we  get  a  chance  during  the  day  we  take  a  bite." 
They  earned  the  current  wages  of  salesgirls  in  such 
places.  Respectable  poverty  at  wages  less  than 
twenty-five  cents  a  day! 

The  testimony  of  the  Belgian  dog  with  regard  to 
poverty  is  emphatic.  In  the  famous  market-place 
before  the  old  Town  Hall  in  Brussels  the  peddlers' 
carts  have  only  dogs  hitched  to  them  as  a  usual  thing. 
This  draft-dog,  I  am  told,  is  especially  bred  for  the 
purpose,  being,  like  the  cart-horse,  big-boned  and 
heavy,  whatever  his  breed.  His  life  seems  to  make 
him  ill-tempered;  it  renders  him  also  a  "tough" 

62 


BRUSSELS,  ANTWERP,  AMSTERDAM,  ETC. 

among  dogs  in  appearance.  Not  infrequently  he  is 
hitched  up  as  one  of  a  pair  in  a  team,  his  mate  a  bent 
and  wrinkled  woman. 

A  great  deal  not  only  of  market  produce  but  goods 
to  be  delivered  to  the  household  is  hauled  in  Brussels 
and  Antwerp  by  dogs  and  their  human  assistants.     In 
Antwerp  the  market-place  and  its  neighborhood  the 
morning  I  was  there  was  a  pandemonium  with  the 
barking  of  scores — aye,  hundreds — of  dogs  weary  of 
their  burdens  and  evidently  protesting  against  their  lot. 
The  Belgium  law,  in  its  benevolence,  has  taken  recog- 
nition of  the  dog  as  a  social  factor.     Before  the  dog  is 
permitted  to  be  hitched  up  in  a  cart,  he  must  have 
attained  a  certain  height  and  weight.     Of  course, 
no  such  benevolent  consideration  protects  the  women. 
The  dog,  with  his  sad  and  surly  looks,  seems  not  to  be 
satisfied  with  the  social  palliatives  for  his  protection. 
If  he  but  knew  the  strength  of  his  jaws  he  might  do 
more  than  growl  and  bark — he  might  go  on  strike. 
The  delivery  push-carts  in  Antwerp  (one  man  furnish- 
ing the  power)  are  in  many  cases  as  large  as  the  two- 
horse  wagons  in  use  by  the  department  stores  in  our 
large  cities.    Several  circumstances  contributed  to  this 
" motor"  man's  assistance:  many  of  the  streets  have 
a  smooth  pavement;    the  wagon  is  on  springs;  the 
body  is  evenly  balanced  on  two  huge  wheels.     It  is 
astonishing  how  much  weight  a  draft-man  can  learn 
to  push  under  these  " favorable"  conditions  and  the 
despair  of  poverty.     One  wagon  passing  through  a 
neighborhood  with  fine  houses  was  loaded  with  nearly 
five  hundred  kilo  loaves  of  bread,  more  than  a  thou- 

63 


LABOR   IN    EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

sand  pounds  in  total  weight.  Another,  hung  with  a 
score  of  empty  peddlers'  market-baskets,  was  being 
propelled  by  two  boys,  of  perhaps  ten  and  twelve 
years,  and  a  woman  apparently  their  mother.  This 
party  had  improved  on  the  old  style  of  tie  and  ride; 
each  took  a  turn  at  riding  while  the  others  pushed 
or  pulled  at  a  lively  trot  toward  the  market.  I  did 
not  see  them  after  their  baskets  were  filled,  but  no 
doubt  they  had  studied  out  some  little  craft  tricks, 
to  call  in  the  aid  of  gravity,  or  in  some  other  way  to 
lighten  the  strain  on  them  during  the  long  trip  to  the 
quarter  of  the  city  from  which  their  cart -sign  told 
they  came. 

Amsterdam  has  abolished  dog  slavery,  a  city 
ordinance  forbidding  hitching  them  to  carts.  Am- 
ster darners  are  proud  of  the  fact,  and  they  have  indeed 
a  beautiful,  progressive,  modern  city — in  parts.  But 
never  anywhere  have  I  seen  such  rags  and  wretched- 
ness, such  proclamation  of  utter  want,  such  ingrained, 
dirt-begrimed  poverty,  as  in  some  of  the  back  streets  of 
Amsterdam.  Whitechapel  is  a  bourgeois  quarter  in 
comparison.  One  recalls  the  second-hand  markets  of 
Petticoat  Lane,  in  London,  as  rich  department  stores 
on  seeing  the  display  of  dingy,  faded,  broken  objects 
exposed  for  sale  in  several  of  Amsterdam's  markets 
for  old  clothes  and  worn-out  household  utensils. 
Given  a  possible  demand  for  these  junk-pile  goods, 
what  could  the  money  value  be  of  a  whole  acre  of 
them?  And  in  places  one  can  actually  see  an  acre 
covered  with  dozens  of  stands  on  which  are  exposed 
for  sale  rusty  hardware,  battered  china,  rotten  little 

64 


BRUSSELS,  ANTWERP,  AMSTERDAM,  ETC. 

ropes,  worn-tothe-handle  brooms,  second-hand  post- 
cards, soiled  writing-paper,  the  rejections  of  the  bou- 
doir, the  waste  of  the  counting-room,  and  the  rem- 
nants from  store  or  factory.     What  can  be  the  value 
per  hour  of  the  time  of  the  vendors  of  these  goods? 
What  the  state  of  the  funds  of  the  buyers  ?    Only  in 
a  community  in  which  people  think  of  their  finances 
in  fifths  of  a  cent  and  are  at  a  daily  grind  for  a  starva- 
tion wage  could  Amsterdam's  poverty  markets  exist. 
That  impression  was  made  a  conviction  when,  with 
my  travelling  companions,  I  visited  an  exposition  of 
"home  industries"  which  had  been  instituted  by  va- 
rious organizations  in  the  city,  largely  at  the  instance 
of  the  trade  unionists  and  the  Socialists  of  Holland. 
When  it  became  certain  that  this  exposition  would 
take  place,  and  that  what  it  must  contain  would  be 
of  the  highest  public  moment,  some  of  the  prominent 
men  in  the  richer  classes  took  up  with  the  movement, 
and  in  the  end  royalty  itself  recognized  the  opening, 
Queen  Wilhelmina  participating  in  the  exercises.    The 
promoters,  after  the  investigations  giving  rise  to  the 
exposition  had  taken  place,  decided  to  offer  among 
other  features  exact  reproductions  of  the  "  homes  "in 
which  the   "industries"   were  carried  on.     Accord- 
ingly, in  the  grounds  of  the  exposition,  which  lie  at 
the  rear  of  the  beautiful  Rijks  (Royal)  Museum,  were 
erected  a  score  of  huts  and  as  many  duplicates  of 
rooms,  showing  how  some  of  Holland's  poor  work  and 
live.      The   people   whose   dwelling- workshops  were 
thus  shown  work  and  live  in  them  during  the  hours 
when  the  exposition  is  open.    The  only  difference  be- 
5  65 


LABOR    IN    EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

tween  the  real  habitation  and  the  reproduction  in  the 
exposition  is  that  at  the  exposition  the  buildings  are 
new  and  have  electric  lights,  whereas  in  the  original 
"homes"  the  occupants  still  use  the  tallow -candle. 
What  the  visitor  sees  brought  together,  therefore,  is 
what  he  could  see  any  day  if  he  but  looked  about  in 
rich  Holland,  where  capital  is  so  plentiful  that  interest 
has  been  down  to  2  per  cent. 

While  the  visitor  observes  the  men  or  women  work- 
ing, he  may  read  on  the  walls  a  card  or  placard  stating 
the  exact  wages  earned  per  week,  the  hours  of  labor, 
and  the  amount  of  assistance  given  by  the  wife  and 
children.  In  a  large  hall  adjoining  the  grounds  are 
exhibits  of  the  articles  produced  in  these  "home  in- 
dustries"— wooden  toys,  children's  playthings,  cloth- 
ing of  all  sorts,  even  to  uniforms  of  army  officers, 
wooden  shoes,  cigars,  household  utensils,  brooms, 
brushes,  paper  bags,  artificial  flowers,  and  a  hundred 
and  one  of  the  inconsiderable  useful  objects  of  every- 
day life — things  that  require  small  means  in  purchasing 
the  raw  material,  but  several  grades  of  skill,  patience, 
and  endurance  in  turning  out  the  product. 

A  catalogue  summarizing  the  statements  accom- 
panying the  exhibits  of  the  various  articles  has  been 
printed  by  the  managers.  It  tells  a  tale  no  one  unac- 
quainted with  the  facts  could  readily  believe,  but  as 
the  exposition  has  the  official  sanction  of  the  Govern- 
ment there  is  no  ground  for  suspicion  that  the  facts 
and  figures  as  given  are  overdrawn.  As  "home  in- 
dustry" is  usually  performed  in  common  by  an  entire 
family,  the  wages  stand  for  all  the  members  com- 

66 


BRUSSELS,  ANTWERP,  AMSTERDAM,  ETC. 

bined.  As  stated,  the  minimum  number  of  hours  of 
labor  for  the  head  of  a  family  was  not  less  than  sixty- 
six  per  week ;  the  usual  number  was  ninety  per  week, 
and  in  one  industry — the  birch-broom  makers — the 
hours  for  the  week  were  one  hundred  and  thirty-two. 
The  minimum  wages  for  a  man  reached  forty  cents  a 
day;  in  only  a  few  cases  did  they  go  slightly  beyond 
sixty  cents.  Whole  families  were  working  for  seventy 
cents  a  day.  The  huts  as  shown  were  usually  of 
dried  earth,  with  thatched  roofs,  having  one  room, 
without  any  floor  but  the  hard  soil,  and  almost  bare 
of  any  furniture  whatsoever. 

One  man  who  was  weaving  reed  bottoms  to  chairs, 
when  asked  what  he  could  possibly  buy  to  eat  when 
his  wages  of  forty  cents  a  day  were  lessened  by  his 
rent,  replied:  "Bread  and  potatoes."  His  forty  cents 
represented  the  earnings  of  himself,  his  wife,  and  two 
children.  As  he  abruptly  gave  his  answer  in  a  harsh 
voice,  without  a  sympathetic  glance  toward  his  ques- 
tioner, and  with  no  trace  of  a  smile,  this  fellow  seemed 
to  be  resentful  of  something.  Was  it  of  his  fate  or 
his  questioner's  impertinence?  His  earnings  of  less 
than  four  cents  an  hour  in  this  day  of  five-thousand- 
dollar  automobiles  were  grotesque  enough  to  arouse 
strange  feelings  among  his  visitors.  Some  youngsters 
in  the  rear  of  the  group  looking  at  him  laughed  aloud. 
Others  of  us  shivered  at  the  spectacle,  and  were  seized 
with  a  strange  horror.  In  both  cases  there  was  shock. 
From  youth  came  derision  that  any  human  being 
would  daily  stand  that  gross  insult  and  inhumanity 
from  the  civilization  about  him.  Why  not  revolt 

67 


LABOR   IN   EUROPE    AND   AMERICA 

against  it  somehow?  From  us  in  the  labor  move- 
ment, quite  apart  from  our  aroused  sensations  of 
sympathy,  was  evoked  the  query:  "What  practical 
help  can  and  ought  the  rest  of  us  give  this  man  and 
his  fellows,  now,  to-day?" 

Holland's  statesmen  are  discussing  the  suppression 
of  the  industries  carried  on  in  the  workers'  miserable 
homes.  Law  is  to  do  it  somehow.  The  active  spirits 
among  the  working  people  and  those  prominent  in  the 
management  of  the  exposition  are  studying  what  can 
be  done  to  mitigate  the  sad  condition  of  the  under- 
paid, overworked,  underfed  workers.  The  Holland 
trade  unions  are  organizing  those  workers  whose  oc- 
cupations and  numbers  offer  a  field  for  union  action. 
The  unions  have  already  done  much  in  the  cities  of 
Holland  to  raise  wages — a  subject  to  which  I  shall 
refer  in  another  letter.  But,  after  all,  there  is  one 
fact  which  must  be  recognized  in  any  plan  for  the  up- 
lifting of  men.  The  individual  must  rise  to  the  level 
of  the  agency  that  would  reach  him  or  her.  Women 
collectively  up  to  the  present  time  have  not  generally 
proved  themselves  to  be  the  best  trade  unionists  be- 
cause as  individuals  they  have  not  tried  through  their 
own  joint  action  to  attain  the  level  of  men  unionists. 
I  have  seen  in  the  United  States,  and  I  know  it  to  be 
true  in  other  countries,  that  women  have  made  the 
most  heroic,  self-sacrificing  contests  in  industry  for 
improvement  as  well  as  for  unionism  and  for  principle. 
My  comment,  however,  is  of  the  general  characteristic 
of  the  course  of  women  workers.  The  trade  unionist 
must,  if  not  precede,  at  least  "arrive"  at  the  same 

68 


BRUSSELS,  ANTWERP,  AMSTERDAM,  ETC. 

time  as  trade  unionism.  And  so  with  other  social 
institutions  intended  to  help  the  poorest  of  the  poor. 
After  all,  they  must  be  helped  to  help  themselves. 

A  few  days  ago  I  was  shown  an  apartment  in  an 
improved  dwelling  for  the  working-classes.  Every  set 
of  rooms,  I  was  told,  had  its  bath-room.  Most  inter- 
esting! The  apartment  in  question  had  three  rooms 
for  the  family,  consisting  of  a  husband,  wife,  and  five 
children.  There  was  a  bedroom  with  three  beds  side 
by  side  in  which  the  family  slept ;  a  living-room,  not 
badly  furnished ;  a  kitchen,  well  planned.  A  tiny  com- 
partment at  one  side  was  the  bath-room.  I  looked  in 
on  it.  Was  it  to  be  the  old  story  of  the  bath-tub  filled 
with  coal  stored  for  the  kitchen  fire  ?  The  room  was 
three  feet  by  five,  with  a  small  window  at  one  end. 
No  tub,  but  the  walls  and  floor  were  of  concrete,  with 
a  drain-pipe  opening  at  one  end  in  the  floor.  A  single 
shower -faucet  was  overhead.  Very  good  indeed  in 
theory,  this  bath-room.  The  faucet  could  only  give 
cold  water,  and  that  was  not  always  encouraging  to 
the  habit  of  bathing.  Contents  of  the  room:  a  large 
bird-cage  (hanging  up),  several  baskets  of  wood  and 
vegetables,  numerous  boxes,  pieces  of  crockery  ware, 
kitchen  utensils,  etc.  The  bath-room  could  be  used 
for  bathing,  that  is  a  fact,  if  one  worked  a  quarter 
of  an  hour  at  least  in  taking  out  the  non-bath-room 
articles.  So  we  see  that  the  desire  to  give  a  man  a 
bath  may  not  be  met  by  a  want  to  take  a  bath. 

There  is  no  end  to  the  difficulties  of  social  problems. 
But  because  all  people  who  ought  to  be  civilized  do 
not  at  once  accept  the  customs  of  civilization  is  no 

69 


LABOR    IN    EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

reason  why  those  customs  ought  not  to  be  insisted 
upon.  The  thought  and  the  action  of  uplifting  man- 
kind depend  upon  the  fact  that  in  general  people 
have  that  in  them  which  in  time  will  bring  them  up  to 
the  level  of  the  best.  In  general,  the  poorest  and  most 
lowly  of  Europe's  immigrants  to  our  country  have 
risen  with  their  larger  opportunities  in  America. 


THE    REMARKABLE    GROWTH   OF  TRADE    UNIONISM 
IN  GERMANY 

BERLIN,  August  7,  1909. 

THE  rise  of  trade  unionism  in  Germany  during  the 
last  fifteen  years  to  its  present  commanding  position 
among  social  reform  forces  has  been  a  fact  of  the  very 
first  importance  to  the  wage  workers  of  the  entire 
civilized  world.  This  movement  of  the  German  in- 
dustrial working-men,  almost  in  a  mass,  from  com- 
parative economic  incohesion  and  dependence  to  a 
state  of  excellent  organization,  with  some  of  the  best 
features  of  English  and  American  trade  unionism,  is 
its  own  evidence  that  the  trade  union  was  the  one 
needed  immediate  agency  to  carry  out  objects  essen- 
tial to  a  positive  advance  in  the  well-being  of  the 
people. 

The  statistics  indicating  the  growth  of  the  unions 
are  eloquent.  In  form  the  organized  workers  of 
Germany  are  in  three  distinct  general  bodies  —  the 
' '  Centralverbande  "  (corresponding  to  our  American 
Federation  of  Labor),  the  " Christian"  unions,  and  the 
' '  Hirsch  -  Dunker  "  unions.  The  Central  verbande's 
growth  has  been: 


LABOR   IN    EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

Year                 No.  of  Members  Increase  in  Year  Per  Cent. 

1894  246,494  22,964  10.2 

1895  259,175  12,681  5.2 

1896  329,230  70.055  27.0 

1897  412,359  83,129  25.2 

1898  493»742  81,383  19.7 

1899  58o»473  86,731  17.5 

1900  680,427  99.954  17.2 

1901  677,510  

1902  733,206  55,696  8.2 

1903  887,698  154,492  21.0 

1904  1,052,108  164,410  18.5 

1905  1,344,803  292,695  27.8 

1906  1,689,709  344,906  25.6 

1907  1,865,506  175,797  *o.4 

At  present  the  number  of  members  in  the  Central- 
verbande,  notwithstanding  a  loss  of  75,000  in  the  crisis 
year  of  1905,  is  more  than  2,000,000. 

The  Christian  unions,  those  promoted  in  Germany 
by  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  have  undergone  a 
considerable  development  in  the  last  decade: 

Year  No.  of  Members        Increase  in  Year  Per  Cent. 

1900  159.770        

1901  160,772  1,002  0.6 

1902  179,799  19,027  ii. 8 

1903  192,617  12,818  7.1 

1904  207,484  14,877  7.7 

1905  265,032  57.548  27.7 

1906  320,248  55,216  20.8 

1907  354,76o  34,512  10.8 

The  Hirsch  -  Dunker  unions  have  also  in  recent 
years  had  some  augmentation  in  their  numerical 
strength.  In  1902  they  had  102,851  members;  in 
1907,  108,889. 

The  existence  of  these  three  separate  organizations 

72 


GROWTH    OF    UNIONISM    IN    GERMANY 

is  to  be  explained  partly  by  regional  growth,  which, 
however,  itself  arose  originally  from  religious  and 
political  differences.  The  Hirsch  -  Bunker  unions, 
founded  by  the  two  Liberal  leaders  whose  names  they 
bear,  exist  mainly  in  Silesia  and  the  east  of  Germany. 
The  Catholic  unions  were  instituted  by  the  leaders  in 
the  church  when  the  wage  workers  among  its  com- 
municants displayed  an  unmistakable  tendency  to 
enter  the  Central verbande.  Three-fourths  of  their 
numbers  are  in  the  Rhenish  districts  and  the  West. 
In  their  earlier  years  these  Catholic  unions  declared 
that  all  their  rights  could  be  secured  by  loyalty  to 
employers.  Experience  has  shown,  however,  that 
power  to  defend  rights  is  an  essential  for  their  en- 
forcement. 

In  recent  years  the  needs  of  trade  union  co-opera- 
tion have  frequently  brought  together  the  three  gen- 
eral bodies,  or  local  unions  belonging  to  the  three,  so 
that  to-day  for  certain  practical  purposes  Germany 
may  be  said  to  have  their  entire  2,500,000  members 
united.  The  three  organizations  are  represented  in 
some  towns,  or  even  districts,  in  a  joint  committee. 
In  such  cases  they  have  stood  by  one  another  in  strikes 
and  lockouts.  All  three  general  organizations  were  in- 
terested in  establishing  the  "home-work"  exposition 
in  Berlin  several  years  ago,  when  the  economic  injury 
of  home  work  was  shown.  Gradually,  also,  modifica- 
tions have  taken  place  in  the  spirit  and  doctrines  of 
each.  The  Hirsch  -  Dunker  unions,  formerly  derided 
by  the  stronger  unions  as  mere  benefit  societies,  are 
now  prone  to  go  on  strike.  The  Catholic  unions  as 

73 


LABOR   IN   EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

such  are  much  less  inclined  than  formerly  to  yield  to 
the  dominance  of  church  opinion  in  so  far  as  the 
immediate  material  interests  of  the  workers  are  con- 
cerned. The  Centralverbande  unions  at  present  con- 
cede that  every  member  may  vote  as  he  will ;  they  do 
not  coddle  the  political  party  idea  of  the  ist  of  May 
general  strike;  the  individual  members  are  yearly 
learning  to  expect  less  help  from  party  and  more  from 
unions;  the  union  leaders  act  quite  independently  of 
the  party  leaders  in  purely  union  matters.  The  day 
when  the  party  leaders  could  declare  that  forming 
trade  unions  is  useless,  that  the  progress  of  the  masses 
must  depend  solely  on  political  action,  that  the  trade- 
union  effort  to  secure  the  absolute  legal  right  of  coali- 
tion was  wrong  and  was  an  invasion  of  party  jurisdic- 
tion, has  passed  entirely  away.  The  German  work- 
man knows  better. 

The  trade  unions  in  Germany  are  not  like  many  of 
those  in  Belgium,  for  example — mere  lists  of  names 
inscribed  at  one  time  or  another  in  a  register,  accord- 
ing to  occupation,  by  men  who  do  not  expect  to  pay 
regular  dues.  They  are  to-day  uniformly  made  up  of 
members  entered  in  their  union  permanently,  usually 
paying  high  dues  and  assessments  in  proportion  to 
their  wages,  ready  through  self-imposed  discipline  to 
strike  or  to  take  a  lockout,  and  whenever  entitled  re- 
ceiving the  cash  benefits  common  to  English  or  Amer- 
ican labor  organizations.  As  a  rule,  the  union  of  a 
trade  is  capable  of  meeting  the  needs  of  its  members 
for  strike  payments  as  well  as  for  sick,  death,  and  out- 
of-work  benefits  or  other  provident  features. 

74 


GROWTH    OF    UNIONISM    IN    GERMANY 

These  comprehensive  facts  relative  to  the  rapid  in- 
crease in  numbers  of  the  German  unions,  the  changes 
in  their  methods  in  order  to  adapt  themselves  to 
directly  practical  instead  of  theoretical  purposes,  and 
the  solid  character  of  their  organization,  imply  the 
further  fact — of  the  first  importance — that  they  have 
been  the  chief  factor  in  bringing  about  the  undeniable 
improvement  of  recent  years  in  the  average  German 
worker's  condition  in  life. 

Great  industrial  progress  came  to  Germany  only 
after  it  had  been  achieved  in  England  and  America. 
The  German  working-men,  observing  the  enormous  in- 
crease of  production  in  their  country,  at  first  gave  the 
proletariat  political  movement  a  fair  and  full  trial. 
On  its  failure  to  yield  the  immediate  results  at  which 
they  aimed,  they  turned  to  the  process  of  selling  their 
labor  collectively  instead  of  in  competition.  They 
have  consequently  taken  an  increased  and  ever  increas- 
ing share  in  Germany's  prosperity.  The  rapid  rise  in 
wages  to  be  noted  in  a  few  occupations  prior  to  1894 — 
plainly,  for  the  most  part,  the  effect  of  trade  unionism, 
became  with  the  spread  of  effective  organization  a 
fact  general  to  all  unionized  callings.  The  reproach, 
common  among  English  and  American  organized  wage 
workers  so  late  as  fifteen  years  ago,  that  their  German 
brothers  were  dreamers,  working  at  slavish  wages 
while  wasting  their  time  and  strength  in  vain  political 
struggles,  is  no  longer  tenable.  The  effective  militant 
front  presented  to  the  employing  class  and  privileged 
class  interests  in  Germany  in  1909  is  that  offered  by 
the  trade  union. 

75 


LABOR   IN    EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

The  facts  as  to  the  rise  of  wages  in  the  German 
trades  as  well  as  the  shortening  of  the  workday  con- 
sequent on  organization  are  indisputable.  Few  men  of 
any  party  or  profession  in  the  country  now  attempt 
to  put  the  case  otherwise.  No  opponent  of  trade 
unionism  could  challenge  the  facts  after  visiting  the 
national  center  of  trade  unions  at  No.  15  Engel  Ufer, 
Berlin,  and  weighing  the  testimony  to  be  offered  there 
in  their  offices  by  the  secretaries  of  the  scores  of  na- 
tional unions  on  the  subject.  There  is  uniformly  but 
one  story  to  be  told — that  of  organization,  subsequent 
effective  demands  on  employers,  the  continued  devel- 
opment of  union  strength,  loyalty  of  the  members, 
some  financial  provision  for  every  idle  member  during 
the  trials  of  unemployment  or  other  suspension  of  earn- 
ings, and  always  attaining  step  by  step  higher  wages, 
shorter  hours,  and  better  shop  and  home  conditions. 
I  take  the  space  here  to  give  examples  of  the  rise  in 
wages  of  but  two  trades,  my  statements  in  this  letter 
necessarily  being  of  a  general  character  rather  than  of 
the  detailed  particulars  to  be  expected  in  a  statistical 
report.  The  union  Berlin  brewery  workers  who  in  1895 
received  24  to  26  marks  a  week  now  have  a  minimum 
of  35.  In  1890  the  saddlers  were  paid  18  marks  a 
week  for  from  ten  to  eleven  hours  a  day;  in  1909  they 
have  27  to  28  marks  for  nine  hours,  with  all  the  work- 
men at  the  trade  in  the  union.  I  recall  the  fact  that 
a  few  weeks  before  I  left  for  this  side  of  the  Atlantic, 
while  our  recent  tariff  bill  was  under  discussion  in  the 
Senate,  quite  a  hubbub  of  excitement  was  created  on 
account  of  a  letter  which  a  branch  of  the  German 

76 


GROWTH    OF    UNIONISM    IN    GERMANY 

Government  had  sent  to  our  United  States  Govern- 
ment on  the  wages  and  conditions  of  German  work- 
men in  certain  industries.  I  am  told  from  reliable 
sources  that  the  figures  given  in  that  communication 
are  correct,  but  as  one  of  the  active  union  men  sig- 
nificantly remarked:  'The  document  does  not  state 
that  the  improvements  were  fought  by  the  Govern- 
ment and  won  by  the  workers  through  their  struggles 
and  sacrifices." 

On  the  question  of  the  rise  in  prices  of  food,  the 
union  leaders  interviewed  by  me  are  of  one  mind 
that  while  in  some  of  the  staples  of  the  market  there 
has  been  a  considerable  advance,  this  is  not  the  case 
in  general.  Moreover,  higher  prices,  where  they  have 
occurred,  are  far  from  overtaking  the  increase  in  wages. 
Fruit  is  cheaper  than  in  Great  Britain.  But  little  more 
than  the  rent  money  that  formerly  secured  a  habitation 
in  the  slums,  which  are  fast  disappearing  in  the  larger 
cities,  now  commands  a  neat  though  small  apartment 
in  an  improved  working-men's  quarter.  It  is  a  matter 
of  common  comment  among  the  working-classes  that 
the  attire  of  the  present  generation  of  young  people 
is  much  better  than  that  of  their  parents  when  young. 
And  the  elders  can  afford  to  spruce  up,  too.  "Twenty 
years  ago,"  said  one  of  the  leaders  to  me,  "very  few 
of  our  class  appeared  in  a  frock-coat  on  the  occasion 
of  our  festivals.  Now  large  numbers  do.  The  wives 
and  daughters  dress  much  better,  and  they  know  how 
to  dress.  Our  working-men  in  general  take  daily 
newspapers,  and  with  their  families  regularly  patronize 
places  of  amusement,  which  they  could  not  do  form- 

77 


LABOR    IN    EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

erly.  In  many  little  ways  they  show  proof  that  they 
are  living  on  a  higher  plane  than  years  ago. 

Another  feature  of  the  new  life  for  the  workers  in 
Germany  is  travel.  The  skilled  wage  earners,  espe- 
cially the  young  men,  are  fond  of  going  about  in  their 
own  country  from  town  to  town,  to  "see  the  world." 
In  itself  this  is  an  education.  The  travelled  journey- 
man returns  to  his  native  place,  to  visit  or  to  remain, 
with  new  ideas  upon  the  questions  interesting  to  his 
class — the  plain  people.  The  newest  methods  of  trade 
unionism  are  in  this  manner  spread  to  the  membership 
everywhere  in  the  empire.  So  also  as  to  the  projects 
of  municipal  betterment  and  similar  modern  social 
ideas. 

The  newer  features  of  factory  legislation  in  Prussia, 
the  union  leaders  hold,  have  been  due  almost  entirely 
to  the  increased  strength  of  the  unions.  As  a  matter 
of  fact,  they  say  if  the  unions  do  not  see  to  it,  factory 
laws  in  many  cases  are  not  enforced.  The  statutes,  as 
required  by  the  Government,  may  be  posted  in  an  es- 
tablishment, but  that  does  not  cause  them  to  enforce 
themselves.  Unionists  inform  their  own  officials  of 
infractions,  whereupon  Government  inspectors  are 
stirred  up  and  the  grievances  are  remedied  without 
obliging  an  employe  to  put  his  situation  in  jeopardy 
by  a  protest  either  to  employer  or  representatives  of 
the  law.  Not  until  the  unions  took  on  their  great 
power,  beginning  about  fifteen  years  ago,  was  it  com- 
mon in  the  factories  to  have  the  regulations  relative 
to  meal- times,  payment  of  wages,  hours  of  labor,  fines 
and  penalties,  etc.,  printed  and  put  up  on  a  bulletin 

78 


GROWTH    OF    UNIONISM    IN    GERMANY 

board.  It  was  the  unions  which  were  foremost  in 
carrying  on  the  long  fight — especially  against  em- 
ployers in  the  textile  trades — which  resulted  in  the 
laws  now  preventing  the  employment  of  children  tin- 
der thirteen  years  of  age  at  all,  and  of  children  between 
thirteen  and  fourteen  more  than  six  hours  a  day.  The 
laws,  recently  passed,  protecting  women  from  night- 
work  and  certain  forms  of  overwork,  were  long  dis- 
cussed in  the  labor  organizations  and  demanded  by 
them  of  the  Reichstag  before  their  adoption. 

The  Government  now  recognizes  the  right  of  organ- 
ization for  all  wage  workers  except  servants  and 
agricultural  laborers.  The  unions  are  striving  to  re- 
move the  disabilities  of  these  classes.  The  laws  in 
regard  to  sailors  have  been  amended  in  the  last  few 
years,  giving  the  men  a  larger  liberty  in  carrying  out 
trade-union  purposes. 

This  progress  of  trade  unionism  in  Germany,  and 
its  consequent  beneficial  effects  upon  large  masses  of 
the  working-people,  are  in  total  violation  of  Socialist 
party  gospel  and  dogma,  as  interpreted  by  the  old 
school  of  its  leaders.  Things  have  not  worked  out 
according  to  the  cataclysmic  scheme  of  its  prophet. 
The  "proletariat "  were  to  sink  deeper  and  deeper  into 
misery.  Conditions,  through  the  very  vices  of  com- 
petition, were  perforce  to  be  worse  before  they  could 
ever  be  better.  But  impious  interferers  have  clogged 
the  wheels  that  were  to  grind  the  workers  down,  re- 
versed the  capitalistic  machinery,  and  actually  caused 
it  to  turn  out  better  wages,  better  conditions — in  a 
word,  a  better  life.  A  general  strike  was  to  be  the 

79 


LABOR   IN    EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

form  of  the  final  social  explosion.  It  was  to  be  fol- 
lowed by  a  reconstruction  of  the  society  thus  shat- 
tered. But,  on  the  contrary,  well-planned  strikes  in 
trades  organized  to  treat  with  employers  intelligently 
have  rendered  the  bulk  of  the  German  working-classes 
indifferent  to  the  politicians'  theory  of  a  general 
strike.  In  many  another  way,  through  municipal  or 
other  social  improvements,  to  which  I  shall  refer  in  a 
future  letter,  the  German  wage  worker  has -seen  life 
made  less  hard  for  him.  All  this  means  that  he  is 
gradually  taking  a  place  along  with  the  other  classes 
in  the  higher  civilization  of  our  day.  He  lives  in  an 
age  which  witnesses  the  greatest  production,  the  most 
wealth,  the  highest  general  intelligence,  and  the  best 
reasons  for  hope  for  his  class  that  the  history  of  the 
world  has  recorded.  Large  numbers  of  the  German 
working-men  are  actually,  in  appearance,  mode  of 
living,  and  individual  development  generally,  becom- 
ing among  the  best -looking  of  Germany's  people. 
They  are  losing  the  distinctive  type  of  the  drudge. 
These  achievements  have  come  in  spite  of  Government 
and  " capitalist"  antagonism  as  well  as  Socialist 
pessimism. 


THE    REAL  INSPIRATION   TO-DAY  IN   PILSEN 

VIENNA,  August  12,  1909. 

THE  most  interesting  event  of  my  journey  during 
the  last  week  was  a  visit  to  Pilsen.  The  name  of  this 
town  brings  a  smile  to  the  American  connoisseur  in 
light  liquid  refreshment,  but  I  shall  hereafter  during 
my  life  remember  Pilsen,  not  for  its  beer,  but  for  the 
quickening  into  life  of  a  great  people's  movement  that 
has  supplanted  the  conventional  methods  of  both  in- 
stitutional philanthropies  and  old-established  political 
parties  in  helping  the  masses. 

From  Berlin  I  travelled  to  Dresden  and  thence  to 
Prague,  devoting  two  days  to  each  city. 

It  came  about  unexpectedly,  that  visit  to  Pilsen, 
through  my  being  thrown  much  in  Prague  into  the 
company  of  a  Labor  member  of  the  Austrian  Reich- 
stag. A  word  as  to  his  personality  and  life-story  will 
serve  to  illustrate  the  social  changes  which  are  now- 
adays so  rapidly  succeeding  one  another  in  Austria. 
In  Prague,  on  the  day  of  my  arrival,  a  conference  was 
being  held  by  the  Bohemian  Social  Democratic  mem- 
bers of  the  Reichstag  at  the  labor  headquarters  for 
the  province.  They  made  me  and  my  party  welcome 
and  showed  us  about  the  city,  which  with  its  suburbs 
has  now  a  population  of  more  than  four  hundred 
6  81 


LABOR    IN    EUROPE  AND   AMERICA 

thousand.  Of  course,  the  public  developments  due 
to  the  efforts  of  organized  labor  took  up  most  of  my 
attention.  If  I  do  not  dwell  upon  such  features  as 
the  newly  acquired  labor  headquarters,  an  immense 
three-story  double  building,  each  wing  more  than  a 
hundred  feet  in  length,  situated  in  the  heart  of  the 
town,  or  the  large  printing-office  in  another  district, 
it  is  because  I  have  in  mind  the  story  of  Herr  Gustav 
Habermann  and  my  visit  to  Pilsen.  I  may  say,  how- 
ever, that  the  Bohemian  national  trade  unions  and  the 
Social  Democratic  party  together  have  paid  $30,000 
on  their  headquarters,  leaving  a  mortgage  of  $200,000, 
that  it  has  been  in  their  possession  for  two  years ;  and 
that  its  restaurant,  with  a  large  garden,  is  a  favorite 
gathering-place  daily  for  the  working-people,  the  gar- 
den serving  for  concerts  as  well  as  for  large  open-air 
mass-meetings.  A  visit  to  the  suites  of  offices  of  the 
various  national  unions  gave  me  an  opportunity  to  see 
that  business  in  each  was  conducted  with  the  system 
of  a  large  corporation;  in  fact,  the  secretaries,  book- 
keepers, typewriters,  and  others  had  much  of  the  bear- 
ing and  manner  of  the  busy,  disciplined  public  func- 
tionaries, so  numerous  everywhere  I  have  been  on  the 
European  Continent. 

On  the  way  to  Pilsen,  Herr  Habermann,  in  reply  to 
inquiries,  told  his  story.  Twenty-odd  years  ago  he 
spent  three  years  in  prison.  On  being  liberated  he 
went  to  the  United  States,  where  he  worked  for  eight 
years  as  a  wood  turner,  mostly  in  New  York  and 
Chicago.  Twelve  years  ago  he  returned  to  Bohemia, 
settling  in  his  home  city,  Pilsen.  His  term  of  im- 

82 


REAL   INSPIRATION   TO-DAY   IN   PILSEN 

prisonment,  spent  in  solitary  confinement,  he  suffered 
in  consequence  of  the  publication  of  political  senti- 
ments. "But,"  he  said,  "the  things  I  then  said  and 
printed  and  for  which  I  was  imprisoned  are  now  being 
published  with  impunity  every  day  in  the  year  by  the 
party  and  trade-union  papers.  The  last  twenty  years 
has  seen  the  greatest  progress  in  political  liberty  that 
Austria  has  ever  known."  Not  being  given  work  in 
prison,  Herr  Habermanii  studied  French  and  English. 
His  sentence  was  for  four  years,  but  as  three  days 
of  good  conduct  counted  four,  he  was  released  at  the 
end  of  three  years.  I  asked  what  else  he  had  learned. 
He  smiled  and  replied:  "To  wait."  I  could  well 
imagine  that  during  those  months  and  years  of  wait- 
ing, his  character  developed  and  his  face  gradually 
took  on  its  patient,  kind,  firm,  manly  expression. 
His  seat  in  Parliament,  he  said,  was  due  largely  to 
the  farmers.  In  one  village  he  had  received  three  hun- 
dred and  fifty  out  of  four  hundred  votes.  Asked  if 
he  favored  the  social  revolution,  he  answered  that  he 
regarded  sending  a  man  to  the  Parliament  of  Austria 
for  the  same  sentiments  that  had  sent  him  to  prison 
twenty  years  before  already  marked  a  revolution. 
The  Social  Democratic  party  had  had  very  little  rep- 
resentation in  the  Reichstag  even  six  years  ago ;  now 
it  has  eighty-nine  members  out  of  nearly  six  hun- 
dred. 

And  now  that  they  were  in  the  Reichstag,  what  were 
they  doing  ? 

"Well,"  was  the  reply,  "they  were  a  part  of  the 
opposition." 

83 


LABOR   IN    EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

"  Opposition  to  the  Emperor,  to  establish  a  democ- 
racy?" 

"No,"  he  could  not  say  the  party  was  actively  op- 
posing the  Emperor  as  such,  "but  it  favored  the 
people." 

1 '  What  was  the  foremost  measure  advocated  at  the 
last  session  of  the  Reichstag  by  the  party?" 

"The  old-age  pension  scheme." 

"No  Government  ownership  of  industries?" 

"No." 

In  fact,  the  most  pressing  task  of  the  working-peo- 
ple's deputies,  from  his  statements,  seemed  to  be  pro- 
testing against  excessive  compulsory  military  service 
and  those  taxes  bearing  most  heavily  on  the  poor. 
He  described  to  us,  as  had  been  done  before  and 
since  by  others,  the  difficulties  of  promoting  legisla- 
tion for  the  people  in  Austria.  He  could  count  eight 
languages  spoken  in  different  parts  of  the  empire,  with 
many  dialects.  The  population  is  divided  by  boun- 
daries that  signify  differences,  not  only  in  language, 
but  in  race,  history,  and  in  cases  of  religion  and 
industry.  These  and  similar  facts,  known  to  us 
Americans  simply  by  description,  and  seen  at  a  great 
distance,  evidently  are  as  big  as  mountains  to  the 
imperial  legislator  representing  part  of  a  province. 

Herr  Habermann  gave  us  the  statistics  of  land- 
ownership  in  Bohemia — the  story  of  Scotland  over 
again,  or  worse.  A  few  hundred  great  landowners, 
chiefly  of  the  nobility  tracing  their  possessions  to  a 
feudal  ancestry,  own  vast  areas;  the  number  of  pro- 
prietary farmers  owning  five  acres  or  less  forms  but 

84 


REAL   INSPIRATION   TO-DAY  IN   PILSEN 

a  small  percentage  of  the  population  that  gains  a 
livelihood  from  agriculture.  But  he  could  not  say  that 
the  land  question  was  at  present  really  a  live  issue  in 
the  Parliament.  Both  the  trade  unions  and  his  party 
in  the  province  were  to-day  greatly  interested  in  gain- 
ing autonomy  for  Bohemia.  The  unions  wanted  an 
independent  existence  for  the  people  speaking  the 
Bohemian  language,  with,  of  course,  "treaties"  with 
the  other  unions  of  Austria. 

Before  relating  what  really  interested  us  in  Pilsen, 
I  will  say  that  as  all  visitors  to  the  town  are  expected 
to  visit  the  big  brewery,  we  were  taken  there  by  our 
hosts  representing  the  trade  unions.  The  "Burger- 
liches  Brauerei"  is  to  the  eye  at  a  distance  a  con- 
glomeration of  immense  buildings,  high  circular  chim- 
neys, big  brick  water-towers,  etc.,  covering  many 
acres  of  ground.  We  were  conducted  for  two  hours 
and  more  in  and  about  the  works  by  a  guide  who,  in  a 
sonorous  voice,  rolled  off  the  stupendous  statistics  of 
the  brewery's  beer  production  with  an  air  of  reverence 
for  the  figures  in  themselves  and  for  the  god  Gam- 
brinus  above  them  all.  To  that  guide  the  culmina- 
tion of  all  the  things  in  the  world  mighty  and  good 
was  beer.  I  rather  felt  our  time  was  to  a  degree 
wasted  in  wandering  down  into  subterranean  malt- 
rooms,  thirty  acres  in  extent,  and  up  past  malt-houses 
of  the  dimensions  of  railway  stations,  and  looking  at 
beer  kegs  as  big  as  freight-cars  that  were  being  made 
or  repaired,  tested,  pitched,  and  filled.  But  it  being 
one  of  the  great  liquid  facts  of  this  earth,  we  saw  the 
show  through.  The  crowning  curiosity  of  it  all  was 

85 


LABOR    IN    EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

the  original  vat  of  the  brewery,  now  battered  and 
time-worn,  set  as  a  sort  of  sanctified  relic  on  a  green 
hillock  surrounded  by  beds  of  flowers  and  duly  and 
historiographically  inscribed.  Brewery  features  are 
considered  the  points  of  interest  in  Pilsen.  But  I 
refer  to  some  of  them  only  because  I  have  also  to 
state  that  wages  in  this  famously  rich  brewery  run  on 
the  grand  average  for  the  thirty-five  hundred  work- 
men from  $2.50  to  $5.00  a  weekf  We  saw  some  of  the 
eating-places  of  the  single  men  who  boarded  within 
the  brewery.  They  were  swinish.  This  brewery  em- 
ploys only  unorganized  workmen.  An  attempt  was 
made  some  time  ago  to  improve  their  condition 
through  organization.  As  the  story  goes,  the  man- 
ager, on  receiving  a  committee  from  the  men,  said 
that  their  representations  sounded  reasonable  and  he 
would  review  their  demands  at  a  general  meeting  of 
the  workmen.  When  assembled  the  men  were  asked 
if  many  of  them  really  were  organized,  and  if  so  to 
make  a  showing  of  the  fact  by  a  division — the  un- 
organized to  stand  fast  and  the  organized  to  move 
to  one  side.  Done.  "Very  well,"  pronounced  the 
manager,  "you  union  men  are  discharged.  Pack  up 
and  leave  the  brewery  at  once.'* 

We  were  conducted  to  the  scene  of  an  exposition 
being  held  by  the  trade  unions  and  the  party  in 
Pilsen.  The  indoor  exhibits  were  installed  in  the 
headquarters,  an  imposing  edifice  purchased  and 
remodelled  by  the  working-men  within  the  last  few 
years.  The  outdoor  exhibits,  with  a  number  of  pop- 
ular resort  features — the  cinematograph,  the  merry- 

86 


REAL   INSPIRATION   TO-DAY   IN  PILSEN 

go-round,  shoot  -  the  -  chutes,  model  cottages,  etc. — 
covered  the  spacious  gardens  adjoining  the  head- 
quarters and  several  acres  of  adjacent  grounds,  tem- 
porarily rented,  separated  from  the  gardens  by  a  tur- 
gid mountain  stream,  which  had  been  bridged  for  the 
occasion  by  the  municipality.  In  all,  the  exposition 
was  a  highly  creditable  display,  mostly  of  the  manu- 
factures of  Pilsen,  not  including  beer,  with  especially, 
in  the  outdoor  part,  agricultural  implements,  and  in 
the  indoor,  many  souvenirs  and  pictorial  illustrations 
of  the  work  of  the  trade  unions  and  the  party  in 
various  countries.  A  set  of  those  diagrams  which 
show  statistical  data  by  means  of  squares  and  lines 
of  varying  lengths  gave  speedily  interpreted  visual 
information  as  to  the  growth  of  trade  unionism  and 
co-operation  and  the  party,  not  only  for  Pilsen,  but 
all  Bohemia.  The  leading  notable  fact  on  these 
points  was  that,  by  a  great  percentage,  the  real  growth 
in  all  these  respects  has  taken  place  within  the  last 
five  years.  Bohemia,  like  the  other  parts  of  Austria 
that  have  taken  up  with  the  modern  working-class 
movements,  is  in  the  first  flush  of  hope  and  victory. 
Labor  has  burst  some  of  its  bonds.  It  is  eager  to  go 
on  in  its  achievements.  Does  it  know  just  to  what 
stage  it  has  advanced  and  just  where  it  is  going? 
Time  will  tell  the  story. 

A  great  meeting  took  place  in  the  evening  in  the 
people's  building  restaurant-hall.  From  the  begin- 
ning of  the  gathering  to  the  end  there  was  a  series 
of  demonstrations  of  unbounded  enthusiasm.  A 
men's  chorus,  strong  and  good,  sang  a  dozen  airs, 

87 


LABOR   IN    EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

either  songs  of  their  fatherland  or  glees  of  the  labor 
movement.  Out  on  the  grounds  a  brass -band  played. 
Later  a  fine  orchestra  on  the  stage  gave  an  excellent 
program,  most  of  the  numbers  strange  to  us,  but 
all  marked  by  unusual  spirit,  rhythm,  and  precision. 
One  after  another  the  national  and  international 
anthems  of  labor — Russian,  Polish,  Italian,  French, 
German,  and  others — brought  out  prolonged  bursts 
of  applause,  with  demands  for  repetition. 

We  had  been  sitting  perhaps  two  hours  enjoying 
these  scenes  when  one  of  our  hosts  told  us  that  as 
Herr  Habermann  had  telegraphed  to  the  working- 
men's  daily  newspaper  that  we  were  to  be  present  this 
evening,  a  number  of  people  of  the  town  not  connected 
with  the  working-class  movement  had  come  to  hear 
something  about  America.  Over  at  one  part  of  the 
hall,  our  informants  pointed  out,  were  some  sup- 
porters of  the  clericals;  and  in  another,  little  groups 
of  business  men;  and  here  and  there  were  soldiers, 
risking  two  weeks  in  the  guard-house  for  coming  to 
the  people's  meeting-place.  An  address  of  welcome 
to  the  Americans  was  made  by  the  chairman  of  the 
managing  committee,  and  then,  being  introduced  in 
the  Bohemian  tongue,  I  made  a  short  address  in  Eng- 
lish, being  aware  that  not  half-a-dozen  persons  in  the 
house  could  understand  me.  All  the  same,  at  the 
conclusion  there  came  a  hearty  round  of  applause; 
at  the  close  of  its  interpretation,  another.  The  big 
heart  of  the  people  in  all  countries  is  the  same. 

Among  those  spectators  who  now  came  to  our  table 
to  have  a  word,  while  the  orchestra  was  playing,  was 

88 


REAL  INSPIRATION  TO-DAY  IN   PILSEN 

a  young  man  who,  as  he  stated,  had  been  a  very  active 
Socialist  agitator  in  Chicago,  where  he  had  lived  some 
years.  He  had  returned  to  Pilsen  to  his  parents,  who 
were  growing  old  and  had  some  property.  He  was 
not  now  active  in  the  party.  He  said  he  knew,  of 
course,  and  knew  that  I  knew,  that  capitalism  was 
swallowing  all  industries,  one  after  another.  The 
social  revolution  was,  therefore,  inevitable.  But  cir- 
cumstances at  present  prevented  him  from  taking  any 
part  in  the  revolutionary  movement.  He  repeated 
the  story  of  the  big  strike  in  Austria  in  1905,  that 
hastened  reforms  of  the  ballot  and  otherwise;  told  of 
the  progress  under  various  European  governments 
of  working-men's  accident,  sickness,  and  pension 
schemes;  denounced  the  capitalists  of  America  for 
avoiding  the  liabilities  of  employers  in  cases  of  acci- 
dents, and  found  cause  enough  in  this  fact — and  the 
inevitable  progressive  monopoly — for  prophesying  a 
Socialist  society  of  the  future.  "But,"  he  added, 
"the  Social  Democratic  party  of  Austria  is  in  no- 
wise a  revolutionary  party."  When  he  left  me  I 
asked  myself  how  many  other  revolutionists  are  to 
quit  when  they  acquire  a  little  property. 

When  at  midnight  our  party  left  the  hall  it  was 
still  crowded.  As  we  passed  out,  a  long,  loud,  and 
hearty  hurrah  was  our  parting  salute.  Herr  Haber- 
mann  saw  us  on  our  train  at  one  o'clock  in  the  morning. 

In  this  outline  of  facts,  little  and  big,  regarding  our 
visit  to  Pilsen,  I  have  tried  to  suggest  to  the  reader 
something  of  the  impressions  they  made  upon  me. 
The  aggressive  opponents  of  social  injustice  are  not 

89 


LABOR   IN   EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

working  in  our  civilized  world  under  exactly  the  same 
degree  of  illumination.  In  various  countries  they 
have  developed  different  methods,  modified  by  his- 
torical events  and  social  conditions.  Certainly  the 
work  done  during  the  last  five  years  in  Pilsen,  as  an 
example  of  many  places  in  Austria,  has  been  note- 
worthy. The  developments  of  voluntary  co-opera- 
tion are  admirable.  Those  of  trade  unionism  are 
fine,  as  beginnings.  Some  common -agency  designed 
to  remove  political  disabilities  non-existent  in  our 
country  was  necessary.  Some  combination  of  repre- 
sentatives, answerable  to  democratic  constituencies, 
has  also  been  essential  in  the  Parliament  to  look  out 
for  the  welfare  of  the  classes  so  long  neglected.  All 
very  well.  But  why  couple  these  practical  move- 
ments with  the  visionary  schemes  of  the  guessers  at 
social  evolution  of  half  a  century  ago  ?  Why  jumble 
together  the  clear  ideas  that  are  necessary  regarding 
the  work  now  being  done  by  the  people  with  the  misty 
stuff  fed  to  them  by  so-called  "intellectuals,"  who 
have  been  so  often  discredited  by  events,  the  course 
of  which  has  run  to  the  contrary  of  their  predictions, 
especially  in  regard  to  their  favorite  dictum,  "Things 
must  become  worse  before  they  can  be  better  "  ?  As 
Herr  Habermann  in  effect  said  to  me:  "What  I  was 
sent  to  prison  for  twenty  years  ago  everybody  can 
say,  print,  and  do  to-day  without  fear." 

It  is  the  contention  of  the  American  labor  move- 
ment, and  it  is  mine,  that  the  great  social  revolution 
will  not  come  with  a  bang  and  a  crash.  It  is  going 
on  now,  every  day,  everywhere  in  the  world,  and  in 

90 


REAL   INSPIRATION   TO-DAY   IN   PILSEN 

the  most  advanced  countries  it  moves  fastest.  In 
them  it  is  most  practical.  It  can  be  held,  for  ex- 
ample, by  those  best  acquainted  with  the  American 
labor  movement  that  our  organizations  would  hardly 
leave  the  Pilsen  brewery  at  peace,  as  is  being  done  by 
the  Austrian  labor  movement,  while  it  conducted  its 
business  under  such  non-union  conditions.  We  might 
not  vote  in  the  United  States  with  a  grand  hurrah 
for  the  nationalization  of  rainbows  in  the  year  2000, 
but  we  would  have  thirty-five  hundred  better-paid, 
better-conditioned  brewery  workers  in  a  jiffy — or  we 
would  abstain,  at  least,  from  Pilsner  beer. 


THE    BUDAPEST    HOD-CARRIER  AND    HER    FELLOW- 
LABORERS 

BUDAPEST,  Hungary,  August  15,  1909. 

MY  fourth  day  in  this  picturesque  city,  with  its 
mediaeval  as  well  as  up-to-date  features,  finds  me 
supplied  with  material  which,  treated  from  different 
points  of  view,  might  take  up  quite  a  series  of  letters. 
From  the  Government  and  the  labor  organizations 
have  come  statistical  and  other  statements  sufficient 
at  once  to  gratify  the  sociologist  who  gains  revelations 
from  tabulated  figures  and  to  frighten  away  the 
reader  whom  arithmetic  tires.  But  from  tours  of 
personal  observation  in  the  big  place,  now  with  a 
population  of  nearly  a  million,  there  has  come  to 
me  much  interesting  information  not  easily  adapted 
to  the  formation  of  economic  reports. 

For  instance,  there  is  the  Budapest  hod-carrier. 
The  picture  she  presents,  going  about  her  draft-horse 
work  barefoot,  climbing  ladders  or  mounting  inclined 
planks  to  the  upper  stories  of  a  big  new  building, 
can  hardly  be  represented  truthfully  in  a  photograph, 
to  say  nothing  of  her  enumeration  in  a  column  of 
figures  that  classifies  industrial  workers.  The  soles 
of  those  broad  feet  of  hers  are  as  callous  as  hogskin 
trunk-covers,  her  toe-nails  are  blackened  and  torn 

92 


THE    BUDAPEST    HOD-CARRIER 

from  stubbing  them  against  bricks  and  beams.  She 
plants  her  legs,  bared  half  way  to  the  knee,  somewhat 
in  the  manner  of  a  mule,  with  cautious  but  certain 
tread,  as  she  moves  along  on  a  single  plank  or  beam 
aloft.  She  is  bunchy  about  the  waist ;  her  head-cover 
is  a  kerchief  not  overclean,  but  usually  of  a  gay 
color.  Her  features  betoken  nothing  in  particular, 
except  an  undeveloped  brain ;  her  movements  are  not 
energetic,  as  one  might  deem  natural,  if  he  is  reason- 
able, on  remembering  her  sex — actually,  she  is  a 
woman ! — and  her  probable  standard  of  nourishment. 
She  is  paid  about  as  much  for  a  week's  work  as  a  New 
York  hod-carrier  earns  in  a  day.  She  is  here  in  Buda- 
pest to  the  number  of  two  thousand,  this  total  easily 
possible  of  an  increase  on  demand.  She  has  no  trade 
union.  According  to  her  strength,  steadiness,  and 
experience,  she  gets  thirty,  thirty-five,  forty  cents  a 
day.  She  is  by  no  means  in  every  case  a  shrivelled 
old  woman;  not  infrequently  youthful,  stalwart,  she 
looks  as  if  she  might  appear  comely  if  engaged  in  a 
feminine  occupation.  She  handles  the  mortar-hoe 
and  the  sand-shovel  clumsily.  Her  "hod"  is  a  hand- 
barrow,  which  is  carried  by  two  of  her  species.  The 
pair  of  them  bear  it  like  a  funeral  bier,  filled  with 
dripping  mortar  or  heavy  brick,  up  to  the  man  "who 
does  the  work  " — the  bricklayer.  Then  they  may  re- 
turn down  with  a  load  of  debris,  to  dump  it  in  the 
street.  I  took  a  full  score  of  snapshots  of  this  flower 
of  Budapest's  civilization — a  feature  somehow  missed 
by  the  post-card  men. 

There  is  another  woman  in  Budapest,  not  unknown 

93 


LABOR    IN    EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

in  any  large  city,  given  over  to  what,  in  the  irony  of 
words  thoughtlessly  employed,  is  called  sport.  Here 
she  is  even  more  in  evidence  than  her  virtuous  sister, 
the  hod-carrier.  She  walks  the  streets  day  and  night, 
in  some  quarters  fairly  in  herds.  At  the  cafe's,  which 
in  Budapest  are  numerous,  gilded,  brilliant  with  light, 
and  rendered  attractive  by  Hungarian  gypsy  bands, 
this  woman  seems  to  be  regarded  as  much  of  a  requi- 
site among  the  appointments  as  the  white  cover  for  the 
table  or  the  dress-suit  of  the  waiter.  The  observer 
of  the  manners  and  customs  of  the  Budapest  people 
might  estimate  that  many  thousands  of  her  women, 
one  day  or  other  in  their  lives,  had  deliberately  taken 
a  choice  between  carrying  the  hod  in  honest  rags  and 
carrying  the  stigma  of  an  outcast  in  flimsy  finery. 

This  dreadful  fate  of  its  poor  women  is  an  index  to 
Hungary's  grade  among  the  nations.  The  low  stand- 
ing of  the  country,  if  the  misery  shown  the  traveller  as 
typical  is  really  so,  is  enough  to  make  its  patriots 
mourn  and  move  its  friends  to  pity.  It  is  a  certainty 
that  tourist  observations,  the  testimony  of  prominent 
men  interviewed,  and  the  statistical  tables  all  agree 
in  showing  the  Hungarian  people  to  be  hardly  in  the 
earlier  stages  of  the  present  great  awakening  of  social 
reform. 

When  the  narrator  of  his  impressions  in  Europe 
touches  upon  the  topic  of  the  low  wages  of  the  masses 
in  any  country  he  has  visited,  the  person  to  whom  he 
is  speaking,  especially  if  an  Englishman  or  an  Amer- 
ican, interrupts  to  remind  him  that  money  wages  are 
not  a  complete  index  to  real  earnings;  the  cost  of 

94 


THE    BUDAPEST    HOD-CARRIER 

living  cannot  be  left  out  of  the  calculation.     So,  let 
us  glance  at  prices  in  Budapest. 

There's  the  matter  of  rent,  usually  rated  by  econ- 
omists as  much  higher  in  America  than  in  Europe. 
For  hours  yesterday  and  day  before  I  was  conducted 
through  several  working-class  quarters  of  the  city. 
Such  squalor,  such  composites  of  all  things  to  be 
classed  as  dirt,  such  indiscriminate  heaping  together 
of  human  beings,  I  have  never  seen  elsewhere.  And 
their  dens  and  holes  of  dwelling-places  cost  the  miser- 
ably poor  occupants  more  per  square  foot  of  space 
than  is  paid  by  the  prosperous  artisan  in  any  Amer- 
ican city  for  his  home,  with  all  its  civilized  accommo- 
dations. The  common  type  of  dwelling-houses  in 
Budapest,  as  in  several  Austrian  and  German  cities  I 
have  visited,  is  a  poor  adaptation  of  the  French  flat, 
the  apartments  being  arranged  about  an  interior 
court-yard.  In  the  poor  working-people's  quarters  the 
houses  are  of  but  one  or  two  stories,  with  several 
court-yards  one  after  another  extending  far  back  from 
the  street.  There  is  one  water-tap  to  each  court-yard, 
which  in  the  centre  has  an  opening  in  the  pavement 
for  drainage  to  the  sewer  or  in  some  districts  simply 
to  a  cesspool.  In  every  court-yard  I  saw  were  several 
puddles  of  foul  water,  besides  the  ruck  and  garbage 
about  the  drain.  At  one  of  these  rookeries  an  ener- 
getic man,  of  the  somewhat  rare  dark  type  of  Hunga- 
rian, came  forward  from  a  poor  man's  cafe  (a  hole- 
in-the-wall  finished  in  zinc,  instead  of  the  mirrors  and 
mahogany  of  the  city's  fashionable  public  lounging 
resorts),  and  said,  heartily: 

95 


LABOR    IN    EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

"Hallo!  I  American  too;  was  in  New  York  t'ree 
year;  I  show  you  house,  yass?" 

He  took  me  through  a  dozen  "apartments"  facing 
in  upon  four  court-yards.  He  walked  into  each  dwell- 
ing without  knocking  or  asking  leave. 

"Don't  take  off  your  hat,"  he  said;  "dese  people 
expects  nottin'.  What  rent  tink  you  dey  pays? 
Dey  don't  get  de  cheap  rents  of  New  York." 

He  quoted  prices  current  in  New  York  for  small 
new  flats.  Then  he  indicated  the  rates  for  Budapest, 
his  information  being  confirmatory  of  what  was  given 
me  by  other  persons  for  other  housings  in  the  city. 

Examples:  For  one  narrow  dwelling-room  and  a 
dark  kitchen,  $2  a  week;  two  rooms  and  a  kitchen, 
$3.50;  room  and  no  kitchen,  $2 .  In  cases  were  higher 
rentals.  On  the  lower  story  the  floors  were  all  of 
stone,  badly  worn.  The  furniture  in  nearly  every 
instance  was  "a  few  poor  sticks."  Our  voluble  guide 
told  us  that  in  this  house  dwelt  seventy-six  families. 
Nearly  all  took  lodgers.  While  showing  us  one  apart- 
ment of  two  narrow,  badly  lighted  rooms  and  a  dark 
little  box  of  a  kitchen  he  asked  the  woman  who  rented 
it  how  many  were  in  her  family.  The  reply  was  her 
man  and  two  children.  And  how  many  lodgers  ?  The 
guide  thus  interpreted  her  answer:  "She  has  six  mans; 
and  two  of  the  mans  is  womans!"  This  kennel-like 
existence,  so  far  from  being  uncommon,  is  the  every- 
day experience  of  the  poverty-stricken  masses  in 
Budapest.  Our  party  was  taken  to  see  many  such 
tenement -houses  as  that  just  mentioned.  The  re- 
pellent scene  was  everywhere  much  the  same,  the 

96 


THE    BUDAPEST    HOD-CARRIER 

best  examples  being  of  a  mode  of  living  unknown  to 
Americans  and  the  worst  a  realistic  picture  of  an 
earthly  inferno.  Our  guide,  pointing  out  one  apart- 
ment after  another,  said  he  knew  of  "whole  houses  " 
in  several  American  cities  for  which  the  rental  was 
lower. 

Perhaps  an  impression  of  existing  housing  condi- 
tions may  be  obtained  from  the  statement  of  one  fact. 
The  Government,  some  time  ago,  decided  to  build  a 
number  of  working-class  tenements.  Some  of  these 
houses  are  in  course  of  construction.  The  apartments 
are  to  consist  of  one  room  and  a  kitchen — the  room 
about  seven  by  ten  feet,  the  kitchen  about  five  by  ten. 
The  reader  can  imagine  what  the  home  life  of  the 
workers  must  now  be  when  the  Government's  mod- 
ern and  model  dwellings  are  to  consist  of  such 
cramped,  insufficient  quarters. 

As  to  the  cost  of  clothing,  we  had  with  us  a  highly 
intelligent  young  man,  a  Hungarian  labor  leader,  who, 
having  spent  a  year  and  a  half  in  America,  was  quali- 
fied to  make  comparisons.  He  now  buys  American 
shoes  regularly  because  of  their  comparative  cheap- 
ness, their  comfortable  fit,  and  their  neat  appear- 
ance, though  he  is  obliged  to  pay  more  for  them 
than  New  York  prices.  Suits  of  clothes  and  hats, 
he  said,  were  of  better  make,  and,  quality  considered, 
just  as  cheap  in  America  as  in  Hungary.  Our  in- 
quiries did  not  end  with  him,  but  from  all  sources  ac- 
cessible we  obtained  the  same  testimony. 

The  general  run  of  wages  in  Budapest  may  be 
inferred  from  these  rates  for  certain  occupations: 
7  97 


LABOR    IN    EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

Bricklayers,  paid  by  the  hour  and  losing  part  time 
in  the  warm  season  through  bad  weather,  and  four 
or  five  months  in  winter,  receive  $i  to  $1.20  a  day; 
carpenters,  working  under  the  same  conditions,  $1.10 
to  $1.50  for  a  day  of  ten  hours.  In  the  milling  in- 
dustry, which  has  the  lead  in  Hungary,  until  recently 
the  rates  ran  from  55  to  85  cents  a  day  for  laborers, 
some  of  them  partly  skilled,  and  about  $1.50  for  the 
men  in  the  more  highly  skilled  positions.  Under  a 
trade  agreement  made  in  June  last  wages  in  the  mills 
were  standardized  and  increased  by  a  few  cents.  The 
printers  of  Hungary  have  95  per  cent  of  the  men  and 
women  in  their  occupation  organized.  In  Budapest 
the  minimum  union  scale  for  day  compositors  calls 
for  $7  a  week,  but  on  the  average  the  wages  reach 
a  little  more  than  $8. 

On  visiting  the  central  offices  of  several  trade  unions 
in  Budapest  one  might  infer  that  the  organized-labor 
movement  was  well  advanced  in  Hungary,  though  this 
is  far  from  the  fact.  The  iron-workers  and  stone- 
cutters have  good  buildings  of  their  own,  with  spacious 
suites  of  offices.  The  bricklayers  are  about  finishing 
one  of  the  largest  and  handsomest  buildings  in  Buda- 
pest, situated  in  a  fashionable  residential  neighbor- 
hood. The  printers  have  a  six-story  building,  Guten- 
berg House,  which  is  an  ornament  to  the  city.  It 
takes,  up  a  block  front,  the  ground  floor  being  occu- 
pied as  stores,  and  it  contains  a  large  meeting-hall 
and  numerous  apartments  for  families.  These  trade- 
union  buildings  have  in  each  case  at  least  three  dis- 
tinct suites  of  offices,  with  three  sets  of  books.  This 

93 


THE    BUDAPEST    HOD-CARRIER 

fact  arises  from  the  attitude  of  the  Government  toward 
the  unions.  The  union  proper,  usually  in  a  state  of 
suspension  by  official  order,  has  one  set  of  books. 
The  benefit  societies,  which  make  the  usual  payments 
in  cases  of  sickness,  death,  or  out  of  work,  have  a 
second.  A  newspaper  which  is  not,  officially,  a 
part  of  the  union  has  a  third  set ;  and  thereby  hangs 
a  tale.  Somehow,  when  the  members  of  a  union  in 
Hungary  quit  work  in  a  body,  the  weekly  payments 
commonly  made  by  unions  in  free  countries  to  strikers 
or  locked-out  workers  is  made  to  them  from  the  news- 
paper's funds'!  Only  members  of  the  union  can  sub- 
scribe for  the  newspaper,  and  its  subscription  price  is 
much  the  same  as  the  dues  of  a  union  might  be — that 
is,  five  to  ten  dollars  a  year.  Surely  men  have  a  right 
to  subscribe  to  a  newspaper  which  insures  them  to 
a  certain  amount  in  case  of  being  jointly  out  of  work. 
It  may  be  that  the  funds  of  the  union  benefit  societies 
and  the  funds  of  the  newspaper  are  invested  in  the 
fine  trade-union  halls  of  Budapest.  The  properties 
are  mostly,  however,  under  heavy  mortgages — drawn 
from  the  resources  of  capitalism. 

In  few  civilized  countries  are  the  trade  unions 
weaker  than  in  Hungary.  There  are  only  about  one 
hundred  thousand  members,  the  entire  population, 
with  Croatia,  being  nearly  twenty  millions.  For  this 
there  are  many  causes,  but  the  most  immediate  is  the 
hostility  of  the  Government  as  represented  at  present 
by  a  man  at  the  head  of  the  department  which  deals 
with  labor  organizations.  While  by  the  statutes 
working-men  are  at  entire  liberty  to  form  unions,  this 

99 


LABOR   IN   EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

official  has  the  power  first  to  look  into  their  purposes 
and  legal  standing,  and  he  thus  usually  finds  reasons 
to  forbid  their  formation.  In  the  case  of  established 
unions  he  harasses  them  by  restrictions  and  suspen- 
sions, so  that  much  of  whatever  they  may  do  renders 
them  liable  to  be  dissolved.  No  one  spoken  with 
found  any  defence  for  the  policy  of  this  man.  His 
name  is  Kossuth.  His  father,  known  as  one  of  the 
revolutionists  of  1848,  was  hailed  as  an  apostle  of 
liberty  during  his  visit  to  America  on  his  release  from 
prison,  after  his  participation  in  the  events  of  that 
year.  Among  the  most  active  of  the  present  reac- 
tionary Kossuth's  opponents  are  the  working-men  of 
Hungarian  birth  now  in  America.  They  send  heavy 
subscriptions  steadily  to  the  Volksstimme,  the  organ 
of  the  most  radical  of  the  opponents  of  the  Govern- 
ment. 

The  manner  in  which  the  administration  deals  with 
the  unions  and  habitually  aids  the  employing  class 
was  shown  in  a  recent  dispute  between  a  teamsters' 
union  and  the  representatives  of  large  landed  pro- 
prietors. The  same  event  afforded  an  illustration  of 
how  the  wily  unionists  manage  to  turn  the  oppressive 
laws  to  their  own  account.  Some  wheat  teamsters 
having  struck,  the  Government  suspended  the  union 
and  took  possession  of  its  funds,  declaring  them  to 
be  the  property  of  the  individual  members.  The  em- 
ployers of  the  members  not  on  strike,  for  purposes  of 
intimidation,  then  locked  out  their  men.  Thereupon 
the  latter,  taking  their  turn  at  operating  the  law  for 
themselves,  appealed  for  their  pro  rata  share  of  the 

100 


THE    BUDAPEST    HOD-CARRIER 

union's  out-of-work  benefit  funds,  which  the  Govern- 
ment department  itself  paid  them  at  the  rate  of  so 
much  per  week  as  long  as  they  applied  for  it.  The 
employers  looked  at  the  transaction  dubiously,  as 
to  them  it  seemed  simply  that  the  Government 
was  guaranteeing  and  administering  the  strike  fund 
to  the  union  members.  Nothing  could  be  done 
to  prevent  the  transaction,  and  the  employers 
gave  up  the  fight,  with  all  Budapest  laughing  at 
them. 

The  wheat-mill  workers'  trade  agreement  with  their 
employers  is,  for  the  most  part,  the  result  of  the 
labors  of  an  earnest  Hungarian  sociologist  who  is  a 
student  of  the  methods  of  American  trade  unionism. 
It  is  a  detailed  formal  contract  which  provides  for 
recognition  of  the  union  and  grants  its  scale  of  wages. 
The  present  agreement,  signed  June  15  last,  is  drawn 
up  for  two  years.  It  is  extra-legal.  Neither  the 
employers'  association  nor  the  mill -workers'  union 
exists  to  the  knowledge  of  the  Government.  Both 
sides,  however,  apart  from  their  possible  legal  exist- 
ence as  something  else,  have  separate  trustees,  a 
separate  treasury,  and  a  separate  organization  which 
might  possibly  come  together  secretly  for  trade  agree- 
ment purposes.  A  patriotic  friend  of  both  sides  told 
me  that  this  agreement,  while  in  advance  of  anything 
the  Government  would  recognize,  was  also  beyond  the 
wishes  of  the  employers  and  above  the  heads  of  the 
employes  in  the  grist-mills.  On  this  latter  point  one 
of  the  items  in  the  agreement  possesses  its  significance. 
It  provides  that  the  men,  on  coming  away  from  their 

101 


LABOR    IN    EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

work,  must  not  be  searched  in  public.  But  they  may 
be  in  private ! 

The  limits  of  space  oblige  me  to  restrict  myself  now 
to  a  few  broad  statements  bearing  on  the  conditions 
of  the  Hungarian  working  -  classes.  With  at  least 
four  million  men  who  under  manhood  suffrage  would 
democratically  guide  the  State,  only  eight  hundred 
thousand  have  the  voting  franchise.  In  the  unorgan- 
ized occupations  hardly  one  wage-worker  in  fifty  has 
any  voice  in  deciding  the  course  of  that  Government 
which  may  send  him  to  battle  to  be  killed  in  its  sup- 
port. In  the  trade  unions  not  one  man  in  twenty  has 
the  right  of  the  ballot.  The  Church  and  the  State 
have  not  been  separated  in  their  spheres,  as  in  the 
United  States.  The  compulsory  military  service  calls 
from  the  working-men  the  bitterest  of  cries ;  those  too 
poor  to  obtain  the  higher  education  must  serve  three 
years ;  the  fortunates  who  have  their  way  paid  through 
college  serve  but  one  year.  The  landed  proprietors, 
the  aristocrats  of  the  nation,  rule  in  law-making. 
"With  regard  to  landed  property,'*  said  one  of  my 
informants  (a  literary  man) ,  "we  are  in  the  condition 
of  France  before  her  Revolution."  "With  regard  to 
child  labor, "  said  a  public-spirited  employer,  "we  are 
in  the  position  of  England  prior  to  1830."  "With 
regard  to  social  reform,"  said  a  radical,  "Hungary  is 
in  the  general  condition  that  Germany  was  when  Marx 
made  his  outcry  against  the  starvation  of  the  prole- 
tariat, and  tried  to  forecast  the  economic  methods  of 
a  better  future." 

The  Government  seems  to  have  no  clear  policy  for 

102 


THE    BUDAPEST    HOD-CARRIER 

bringing  the  country  up  to  modern  standards.  "A 
million  Hungarians  are  in  America,"  one  man  told  us, 
"and  their  going  has  helped  the  masses  at  home  but 
little.  The  millions  of  crowns  sent  home  yearly  by 
the  emigrants  find  their  way  to  the  enrichment  of  the 
classes  already  having  possessions,  for  the  poor  to 
whom  the  money  is  sent  have  to  part  with  it  in  buy- 
ing the  necessaries  of  life." 

The  trade  unions  have  now  a  policy,  fully  adopted 
last  year,  in  advance  of  their  previous  ideas.  They 
have  resolved  to  keep  the  partisan  political  movement 
entirely  apart  from  the  union  movement,  which  is  to 
be  conducted  only  by  men  working  at  their  trades. 
Two  attempts  at  general  strikes,  the  first  in  some  re- 
spects partly  successful,  the  second  a  dismal  failure, 
have  convinced  the  leaders  of  the  necessity  for  pro- 
viding well  beforehand  for  possibly  successful  limited 
strikes.  The  new  Hungarian  trade-union  movement 
may  help  the  American  movement.  Heretofore  un- 
organized Hungarian  miners  and  cigarmakers  have 
gone  to  the  United  States  in  large  numbers  as  strike 
breakers.  Efforts  are  now  being  made  to  organize 
these  workers  and  improve  their  conditions  at  home. 

In  politics,  five  distinct  parties  have  members  in 
the  Reichsrath.  "All  five  are  opposed  to  us,"  said 
one  of  the  working-men.  "The  Social  Democratic 
party  has  not  a  single  member.  But  by  some  name 
the  working-people  intend  to  be  represented,  though 
the  conditions  of  suffrage  are  worse  now  than  ten 
years  ago."  When  in  a  railway  train  our  party  was 
passing  a  penitentiary,  this  man  said,  pointing  to  it: 

103 


LABOR   IN   EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

"In  that  building  are  robbers,  murderers,  and  So- 
cialists. "  Well,  what  American  animated  by  the 
spirit  of  '76  would  not  qualify  himself  quickly  for 
prison  in  such  a  country  as  Hungary — and  do  it  under 
the  name  of  Socialist  if  necessary  ? 

The  depressing  facts  which  I  have  recorded  in  this 
letter  were  not  obtained  from  some  "perverted" 
mind,  rendered  so  by  prejudice,  hatred,  or  revenge. 
Most  of  the  oral  information  communicated  to  me 
came  from  a  legal  practitioner  of  high  standing  in  the 
community  and  a  representative  of  an  association  of 
employers  in  one  of  the  leading  industries  of  the 
country.  Their  testimony  was  supplemented  by  that 
of  a  large  employer  of  labor  and  the  careful  statements 
of  several  of  the  foremost  intelligent  and  trustworthy 
labor  men  of  Hungary.  Added  to  these  are  results 
of  my  own  observations  and  of  inquiries  made  of 
workers  themselves. 


MUNICH  A  MODEL  TRADE-UNION  CENTER 

VENICE,  August  20,  1909. 

FROM  Budapest,  our  farthest  point  east  in  Europe, 
we  journeyed  north  and  west  to  Munich  by  fast  ex- 
press. The  trip  took  sixteen  hours.  It  gave  me  my 
first  experience  with  European  sleeping-cars.  None 
of  our  party  slept !  But  the  particulars  of  this  journey 
I  shall  reserve  for  a  paragraph  in  a  future  letter,  which 
I  shall  devote  to  some  curious  drawbacks  incident 
to  travel  in  Europe  as  seen  from  an  American  labor 
point  of  view. 

Munich,  less  than  a  day  from  Budapest,  is  so  far  in 
advance  of  the  latter  in  social  development  that  one 
must  expect  radical  changes  in  Hungary  before  the 
two  cities  can  possibly  stand  on  the  same  level.  With 
respect  to  the  political  rights  and  the  education  of  its 
citizens,  all  my  informants  concurred  in  describing 
Munich  as  in  no  way  second  to  any  other  place  in  Ger- 
many. Officials  connected  with  institutions  for  the 
protection  or  assistance  of  the  poor  offered  the  evi- 
dence of  their  volumes  of  reports  to  show  that  nothing 
was  left  undone  in  their  departments.  In  trade 
unionism  the  local  labor  representative  men  held  that 
Munich  leads  not  only  all  Germany,  but  every  other 
city  on  the  European  Continent. 

105 


LABOR   IN    EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

In  May,  1894,  the  total  number  of  union  members 
represented  in  the  Central  Union  of  Munich  was  only 
4903;  in  December,  1908,  it  had  increased  to  54,425. 
The  significance  of  these  figures  affords  good  reason 
for  quoting  the  statistics  on  the  same  point  for  some 
of  the  intermediate  years:  1895,  7981;  1897,  8563; 
1900,  17,275;  1905,  36,522;  1906,  47>355-  In  1894 
only  75  wage  workers  per  1000  were  organized;  in 
1900,  275  per  1000 ;  in  1908  the  great  majority  in  all 
skilled  trades  were  in  the  unions,  in  some  of  which  the 
proportion  organized  reached  from  90  per  cent  to 
nearly  100. 

These  figures  indicate  the  adoption  of  the  trade 
union  within  the  last  fifteen  years  by  the  masses  in  a 
city  where  for  a  generation  they  had  been  taught  not 
to  look  for  help  through  its  operations.  In  this  re- 
gard Munich  has  the  same  story  to  tell  as  Hamburg, 
Berlin,  and  the  other  large  industrial  cities  of  Ger- 
many. Consequently,  all  the  impressions  that  were 
gained  and  recorded  by  American  sociological  ob- 
servers in  Germany  fifteen  or  even  ten  years  ago  must 
be  thoroughly  corrected  in  order  to  represent  the 
present  situation.  The  works  written  by  German  or 
American  publicists  only  five  years  ago,  describing 
the  status  of  labor  in  Germany  and  forecasting  the 
probabilities  as  to  the  directions  to  be  taken  in  social 
expansion,  possess  little  of  the  value  the  authors 
might  have  imparted  to  their  volumes  had  publication 
been  deferred  until  now.  The  very  considerable  num- 
ber of  German  working-men  who  went  to  the  United 
States  a  decade  or  more  ago  with  convictions  based 

106 


MUNICH    A    MODEL    UNION    CENTER 

on  the  theories  then  most  popular  in  Germany,  and 
who  are  now  interested  in  social  movements  in  Amer- 
ica, are  not  directing  their  energies  to  the  highest  profit 
if  they  have  not  kept  in  touch  with  the  recent  rapid 
changes  in  sentiment  and  activities  among  the  wage 
workers  in  Germany.  With  the  evidence  of  the  solid 
benefits  arising  from  practical  work,  the  German  in- 
dustrial working-men  are  now  taking  the  time  to  dis- 
cuss immediate  actualities  which  was  once  given  to 
remote  abstractions.  With  new  subjects  for  their  de- 
bates and  their  reading,  new  purposes  have  arisen  be- 
fore them  for  their  common  efforts.  Whereas  formerly 
parliamentarism  almost  completely  absorbed  their  at- 
tention, at  present  their  minds  are  more  frequently 
directed  to  wage  scales  and  the  shortening  workday, 
to  trade  agreements  between  employers  and  employed, 
and  to  the  great  fact  that  no  matter  what  the  law- 
makers may  be  doing,  they  themselves  have  now  suf- 
ficient liberty  of  association  to  manage  the  sale  of 
their  labor  power  collectively.  For  competition  in 
the  labor  market  they  have  substituted  unity. 

These  points  were  so  often  brought  to  my  observa- 
tion in  Munich  that  I  can  have  no  hesitation  in  accept- 
ing them  as  generally  true  for  the  whole  city.  More- 
over, whether  showing  me  the  advanced  rates  in  the 
printed  scales  of  wages  or  informing  me  of  the  change 
in  general  public  sentiment  toward  the  labor  move- 
ment, the  labor  leaders  declared  that  the  great  special 
improvements  in  the  condition  of  Munich's  working- 
people  had  come  through  trade  unionism,  "and  no 
other  agency."  This  assertion  was  made  even  by 

107 


LABOR  IN   EUROPE   AND   AMERICA 

men  prominent  in  the  party.  It  was  repeated  by 
higher  officials  in  the  Munich  Municipal  Labor  Ex- 
change (Stddtisches  Arbeitsamt  Munchen). 

This  labor  exchange  of  Munich  I  visited,  though  not 
in  expectation  that  anything  could  be  seen  very  dif- 
ferent from  those  exchanges  in  other  European  cities,  at 
which  enforced  idleness  and  undeserved  poverty  are  to 
be  seen  humbly  seeking  some  footing  in  society  on  the 
basis  of  paying  its  way  in  work  instead  of  being  driven 
to  pauperism.  Usually  the  officials  had  seemed  to  be 
going  about  their  work  in  a  perfunctory  manner;  the 
horde  of  applicants  for  work  had  the  appearance  of 
being  desperately  poor;  and  the  waiting-halls  were 
repellent  to  every  sense,  especially  that  of  smell. 
But  the  Munich  exchange  turned  out  to  be  a  model 
of  its  kind.  It  was  noticeably  clean.  Every  one  of 
the  halls,  all  light  and  airy,  looked  as  i(  washed  up 
daily.  The  seekers  for  work  were  classified,  skilled  or 
unskilled,  the  former  as  to  trades,  and  kept  apart  in  a 
dozen  separate  halls.  The  inspectors  were  sufficient 
in  number  to  permit  the  hiring  of  the  men  or  the 
women  to  proceed  speedily.  The  manner  of  the 
officials  toward  the  applicants  indicated  a  disposition 
to  assist  instead  of  to  overawe.  The  chief  inspector 
and  his  first  assistant,  who  showed  me  over  the  build- 
ing, exhibited  an  unmistakable  interest  in  their  work. 
On  talking  with  a  number  of  men  waiting  to  be  en- 
gaged, we  found  that  nearly  all  of  them  had  been  out 
of  work  only  a  very  brief  time.  They  were  a  clean- 
looking  lot.  They  seemed  cheerful,  and  to  be  quite 
confident  of  finding  employment  soon.  In  the  women's 

108 


MUNICH  A  MODEL   UNION   CENTER 

halls  care  was  given  to  keeping  the  applicants  of  dif- 
ferent occupations  apart;  there  are  fine  distinctions 
in  the  social  grades  of  the  female  workers,  which  must 
be  observed  if  the  exchange  is  to  perform  its  best 
service.  In  the  domestic  department  was  a  room 
with  a  dozen  recesses  in  which,  seated  at  a  little  table, 
mistress  and  maid  might  make  those  minute  arrange- 
ments which  so  much  occupy  the  minds  of  both  before 
the  new  girl  is  taken  into  the  household. 

Of  mere  description  of  waiting-rooms,  bureaus,  and 
management  more  or  less  may  be  given  of  the  labor 
exchanges  of  Germany  and  Austria  that  must  read 
much  the  same,  but  to  be  able  to  say  that  the  ideas 
of  the  projectors  have  been  carried  out  to  almost  the 
point  of  perfection  is  a  rare  thing. 

The  Munich  labor  exchange,  like  all  the  others  we 
had  visited,  seemed  to  be  rather  top-heavy  with 
functionaries.  What  an  endless  filling  out  of  blanks 
there  seemed  to  be,  with  the  checking  up  of  one  point 
and  another  in  great  ledgers,  and  the  making  out  of 
statistical  tables  that  filled  pages.  I  was  shown  the 
shelves  of  a  library  thick  with  books  and  the  closets 
containing  the  archives  of  the  institution.  Every 
book  and  pamphlet  was  classified,  catalogued,  and 
stood  up  or  filed  away  in  its  proper  place.  Curious  to 
obtain  an  illustration  of  the  certainty  with  which  the 
seeker  for  knowledge  might  get  just  the  particular 
point  he  wanted,  I  asked  to  see  the  documents  on  the 
"United  States"  shelf,  and  especially  in  its  "Labor" 
division.  The  case  was  opened  up,  with  all  the  di- 
verse contents  elaborately  labelled.  Forth  came  a 

109 


LABOR    IN    EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

London  pamphlet  on  the  English  Compensation  Act 
and  a  circular  from  the  Connecticut  Bureau  of  Labor 
relating  to  the  tariff;  date,  ten  years  ago!  In  looking 
into  their  compartments  through  the  brass  bars  and 
wirework  partitions  at  the  docile  pen-drivers  in  the 
public  bureaus  of  various  departments  in  Germany, 
I  have  more  than  once  wondered  what  they  were  do- 
ing so  patiently  and  to  what  practical  effectiveness 
their  seemingly  tedious  labors  led.  I  cannot  say  now 
that  I  know,  but  at  least  the  suspicion  is  justified  that 
their  checking,  balancing,  counting,  recording — all 
executed  in  handwriting  quite  faultless  and  in  forms 
established  by  law — might  be  reduced  by  nineteen- 
twentieths  with  the  world  none  the  loser.  There's 
little  of  such  work  done  in  the  big  railroad  offices  of 
America.  But  the  railroads  are  run. 

When  leaving  the  exchange  the  labor  committee- 
men  with  me  said  that  the  skilled  trades  of  Munich 
usually  maintained  their  own  exchanges  or  labor 
bureaus,  where  employers  could  find  whatever  work- 
men they  needed.  At  that  moment  I  observed  seated 
on  a  park  bench  four  men  whose  garb  would  have 
qualified  them  to  "go  on"  in  a  stage  act  as  Tyrolese 
singers.  Their  little  cocked-up  hats  were  adorned 
with  a  feather  at  the  side  or  a  brush  at  the  back;  they 
wore  vari-colored  shirts  and  vests,  and  velveteen  or 
leather  knee-breeches.  On  questioning  them  they 
said  they  had  come  from  Eastern  Austria  to  Munich 
looking  for  work,  and  were  already  inscribed  at  the 
municipal  labor  exchange  as  applicants  in  their  re- 
spective callings.  Certainly  the  labor  bureau  as  a 

no 


MUNICH    A   MODEL   UNION    CENTER 

Government  agency  becomes  a  puzzling  question  the 
more  one  learns  of  what  it  does  and  what  it  cannot  do. 
Uniformly  I  had  found  that  in  all  cities  it  is  of  little 
value,  not  only  to  the  higher-paid  artisan  class  but 
to  the  numerous  and  increasing  body  of  well-organized 
workers.  Here  in  Munich  I  now  found  it  smoothing 
the  way  for  laborers  of  another  nation  to  compete 
with  Munich's  own  people  while  its  services  were 
ignored  by  the  skilled  trades. 

One  important  fact,  however,  I  was  carrying  away 
from  the  bureau.  It  was  the  assurance  from  its  chief 
that  nothing  had  ever  had  the  same  influence  on  the 
wage  situation  in  the  city  as  the  trade  unions.  Since 
their  rise  they  had  advanced  wages,  which  was,  of 
course,  expected ;  but  what  was  of  almost  equal  social 
weight,  they  had  made  wages  steady.  There  could 
now  be  said  to  be  a  prevailing  rate — viz.,  that  of  the 
unions,  to  which  even  the  pay  of  the  non-unionists 
tended  to  approximate.  But  formerly  there  was  no 
rate ;  the  wages  of  the  very  poor  depended  on  the  de- 
gree of  their  necessities  when  hiring  and  the  disposition 
of  the  employers  to  drive  a  hard  bargain.  Moreover, 
the  officials  stated,  the  trade  unions  contributed  in 
making  work  steady.  In  the  building  trades,  for  ex- 
ample,'before  the  day  of  the  labor  organizations,  work 
went  on  with  a  rush  for  a  brief  season  in  the  summer, 
every  workman  to  be  found  far  and  wide  being  en- 
gaged. But  before  and  after  this  short  period  the  out- 
of-works  numbered  thousands.  Now  that  the  unions 
have  won  shorter  hours  and  other  rights  of  a  party 
to  a  bargain  no  longer  one-sided,  building  goes  on  quite 

in 


LABOR   IN   EUROPE   AND   AMERICA 

steadily,  and  where  possible  the  year  round,  with 
resultant  benefit  to  all  who  are  engaged  in  any  occu- 
pation connected  with  the  industry. 

The  labor  committeemen  with  us  thought  it  quite 
American  that  we  should  halt  and  talk  with  the  four 
Austrians  in  the  park,  and  get  from  them  the  facts 
as  to  their  coming  to  Munich  and  reporting  at  the 
labor  bureau.  The  accepted  German  method  of  social 
investigation  seems  to  be  thumbing  over  a  Government 
report  made  up  in  the  bureaus.  And  our  committee- 
men  were  very  good  in  quoting  from  such  official  docu- 
ments. They  told  us  that  the  present  population  of 
Munich  is  nearly  600,000,  that  the  number  of  industrial 
establishments  falling  under  factory  inspection  (those 
using  motor  power)  is  about  11,000,  employing  more 
than  80,000  persons,  1 7 ,000  being  women.  In  the  hand- 
icrafts not  well  organized  the  number  of  workmen  is 
comparatively  inconsiderable.  In  Munich  the  general 
level  of  wages  is  as  high  as  in  Berlin.  There  is  an  im- 
migration from  Austria  and  Italy  to  Munich  and  Ba- 
varia generally.  The  Italians,  unskilled  laborers  in 
building  construction  and  railroad  work,  have  been 
found  almost  impossible  to  organize.  From  this  fact 
it  is  to  be  inferred  that  the  Munich  trade  unions  have 
not  yet  learned  fully  the  methods  of  organizing  as 
practised  in  the  United  States.  In  our  country  the 
Italians  are  taking  a  place  in  the  unions,  as  has  been 
done  by  men  of  all  other  European  nationalities  when 
they  have  been  brought  to  understand  the  good  the 
unions  can  do  for  them. 

Our  party  was  continuing  the  discussion  of  earnings 

112 


MUNICH    A   MODEL    UNION    CENTER 

and  how  to  increase  them  during  lunch  at  a  hotel, 
when  the  landlord  volunteered  the  information  that 
he  had  worked  four  years  as  a  butcher  in  Chicago 
and  in  Saginaw,  Michigan,  and  could  give  us  some 
comparisons  as  to  the  cost  of  living.  He  said  he  had 
had  good  board  in  Saginaw  at  $4  a  week.  The  cost  of 
meat  in  Munich  for  the  better  grades  was  nearly 
double  that  in  Saginaw,  and  fully  50  per  cent  more 
for  the  poorer.  He  regarded  the  meat  of  Munich, 
on  the  average,  better  than  that  sold  in  the  rest  of 
Germany,  excepting  Hamburg.  The  calves,  lambs, 
and  young  porkers  were  " better  developed."  Fruit 
in  Munich  was  cheap  and  good,  but  lacking  in  the 
variety  known  to  America.  A  general  talk  about  the 
lunch-table  with  the  local  labor  committeemen  as  to 
cost  of  dwelling-places  brought  out  these  points:  No 
Munich  working-man  occupies  a  whole  house;  the 
apartment  system  is  general.  The  highest  rent  known 
to  be  paid  for  a  family  of  working-people  was  $200  a 
year;  two  rooms  and  a  kitchen  cost  $180;  one  room 
and  a  kitchen,  in  a  poor  laborer's  quarter,  $87.50. 
Thousands  of  families  live  in  Munich  in  one  or  two 
rooms,  a  kitchen  in  addition  being  not  always  the  rule. 
Being  asked  what  he  regarded  as  the  best  features  of 
municipal  provision  for  the  working-classes,  the  land- 
lord pronounced  in  favor  of  the  out-of-work  relief 
and  the  new  tenement-house  law.  A  citizen  of 
Munich  not  able  to  find  employment  is  entitled, 
on  subjecting  his  character  and  mode  of  life  to  the 
processes  of  official  investigation,  to  seventy -five 
cents  relief  a  week.  Instantly  the  skilled  tradesmen 
8  113 


LABOR   IN    EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

present  declared  that  never  had  a  man  in  their  various 
unions  taken  such  relief,  and  therefore  they  objected 
to  the  ordinance  providing  for  it  being  regarded  as  of 
general  benefit.  But  all  agreed  that  the  clearing  away 
of  Munich's  rookeries  in  the  back  streets,  with  the 
stipulations  as  to  the  grade  of  building  landlords 
henceforth  should  provide  for  working-class  tenants, 
had  been  excellent  municipal  improvement  work. 

I  may  have  stated  that  on  the  general  subject  of 
housing,  cost  of  living,  and  public  effort  to  im- 
prove the  living  conditions  of  the  working-people  I 
have  a  considerable  collection  of  data.  It  can  be 
given,  as  it  relates  to  the  various  cities  visited,  in 
the  future  in  one  chapter — to  be  read  by  those  who 
like  statistics.  Meantime,  however,  perhaps  some  of 
my  readers  may  believe,  as  I  do,  that  much  light  may 
be  thrown  on  public  questions  from  the  impromptu 
delivery  by  men  of  fair  intelligence  of  facts  as  they 
see  them.  Hence  my  reference  to  the  landlord's 
views,  as  revised  on  the  spot  by  some  of  his  hearers. 

A  visit  to  the  quarter  that  once  was  Munich's  worst 
brought  to  view  a  good  many  old  houses — most  of  them 
standing  apart  from  any  others,  however,  those  form- 
erly between  them  having  been  torn  down.  Light 
and  air  and  playground  space  for  the  children  had 
thus  been  given  to  the  occupants  of  the  houses  re- 
maining. Cleanliness,  both  of  the  houses  and  the 
streets,  had  also  been  made  possible;  the  entire  dis- 
trict appeared  fairly  well  cared  for,  both  by  the  resi- 
dents and  the  authorities.  "There's  nothing  dis- 
graceful in  an  old  house,"  we  all  agreed.  "Given 

114 


MUNICH   A    MODEL    UNION   CENTER 

hygienic  conditions,  and  absence  of  the  nuisances  and 
infamies  of  congestion,  and  a  quarter  made  up  of  old 
houses  may  be  no  more  objectionable  than  a  half- 
finished  new  district."  "Very  true,"  quoth  one  of  our 
attendant  committeemen, ' '  and  there's  nothing  degrad- 
ing, even  for  women,  in  an  honest  occupation.  Now, 
those  lusty  women  who  clean  Munich's  streets  day 
and  night,  and  act  as  switchmen  for  the  electric  cars. 
They  are  engaged  in  healthful  work,  they  are  paid  the 
same  as  men,  and  you  must  grant  that,  with  their 
municipal  uniform  Alpine  hats  and  short  skirts,  they 
are  very  picturesque."  "Aye,"  came  from  another, 
"work  is  somewhat  like  the  boycott:  for  its  respecta- 
bility it  depends  on  who  carries  it  on.  Now,  there 's 
that  boycott  at  present  enforced  by  half-a-dozen  so- 
cieties of  hotel  landlords,  as  well  as  theatre  and  con- 
cert-garden musical  directors,  on  that  firm  of  publish- 
ers which  is  trying  to  collect  royalties  on  the  music  it 
publishes.  That's  a  boycott  publicly  advertised.  But 
the  brewery  teamsters  might  not  have  so  easy  a  time 
in  boycotting  an  unfair  brewery."  And  thus  our  con- 
versation reconciled  us — some  of  us — to  living  in  an 
old  house,  to  outdoor  city  work  for  women,  and  the 
boycott  as  a  social  institution. 

On  the  whole,  the  tourist  cannot  be  impressed  other- 
wise than  favorably  with  Munich.  The  central  dis- 
tricts of  the  city,  reached  in  a  short  walk  from  the 
fine  railway  station,  are  most  attractive.  They  have 
many  handsome  public  buildings,  beautifully  kept 
parks,  and  wide  and  clean  streets,  several  of  which 
are  lined  with  shop-windows  that  would  do  credit 

"5 


LABOR   IN   EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

to  Paris  and  that  rival  the  picture-galleries  as  mag- 
nets to  American  travellers.  The  stone- walled  em- 
bankments of  the  swift,  narrow  Iser  form  a  popular 
promenade,  along  which  are  imposing  apartment- 
houses.  To  the  south  of  the  river  is  an  elegant  sub- 
urban district,  stretching  away  toward  the  country. 
Really,  the  fine  neighborhoods  of  Munich  seem  to 
spread  over  fully  three-fourths  of  the  area  of  the  city. 
In  the  other  fourth  dwell  most  of  the  workers,  in 
swarms,  one,  two,  or  three  rooms  to  the  family,  in  big 
barracks-like  houses.  Thrifty  and  respectable  work- 
ing-people they  must  be,  so  as  not  to  degenerate  into 
a  slum  life  in  their  contracted  dwelling-places.  From 
the  character  of  its  people  in  general,  and  from  the 
excellent  organization  of  its  wage  workers,  one  may 
be  led  to  expect  Munich  to  move  along  in  the  van 
toward  that  higher  civilization  for  all  which  ought  to 
be  swiftly  approaching. 

It  was  in  pleasant  reflections  such  as  these  that  I 
found  myself  engaged  when  about  taking  a  train  at 
the  Munich  station  on  the  morning  of  my  departure. 
Yes,  here  was  a  fine  modern  city,  with  many  of  the 
characteristics  of  an  advanced  civic  life.  One  feels 
the  better  for  visiting  such  a  place — progressive, 
public-spirited,  up-to-date.  ''What's  that  you  say?" 
I  asked  one  of  our  labor  commit teemen,  coming  out 
of  my  dream.  "There's  not  enough  cars  to  your  train 
for  the  number  of  passengers!*'  This  word  seemed 
to  have  been  transmitted  telepathically  along  the 
crowd  that  lined  the  station  platform.  At  once  a 
pandemonium!  Porters  and  passengers  ladened  with 

116 


MUNICH   A   MODEL    UNION    CENTER 

hand-baggage  dashed  for  the  train  as  it  backed  in. 
There  was  a  struggle  at  every  car  door.  Shouts, 
gesticulations,  football  rushes !  A  porter,  running  wild, 
struck  one  of  the  ladies  of  my  party  violently  with  a 
heavy  valise  that  dangled  among  others  from  his 
shoulders.  One  of  our  German  commit teemen  sped 
after  him  and  dealt  him  a  blow.  My  party  became 
separated,  to  find  standing-room  or  the  poorest  seats 
finally  in  different  cars.  The  train  moved  out  of  the 
station  with  men  and  women  in  every  compartment 
—first,  second,  or  third  class — angry,  anxious,  in  a 
fault-finding  mood.  The  day  was  hot ;  the  passengers 
sweltered;  the  trainmen  were  out  of  humor.  The 
Americans — those  among  them  who  could  make  them- 
selves understood — were  denouncing  the  railroad  com- 
pany and  telling  their  neighbors  how  incomparably 
better  the  transportation  service  was  in  America  on 
any  through  train,  such  as  this  from  Munich  to  Verona. 
' '  But  don't  berate  'the  railway  company,' "  said  one  of 
the  passengers.  "In  this  country  the  railways  are 
owned  and  managed  by  the  'State.1  The  service 
usually  breaks  down  in  the  busy  season.  You  needn't 
to  expect  any  improvement." 

All  of  which  suggested  reflections  on  the  standards  of 
civilization  in  America  as  compared  with  the  standards 
in  Europe,  especially  in  regard  to  the  conveniences  of 
living  and  travelling.  But — that's  another  letter. 


THE  SWISS  LABOR  MOVEMENT— A  DAY  IN  COLOGNE 

PARIS,  Monday,  August  30, "1909. 

SINCE  writing  my  letter  of  ten  days  ago  in  Venice  I 
have  made  brief  visits,  in  passing,  to  Milan,  where  I 
saw  the  great  cathedral ;  to  Chamonix,  whence  I  viewed 
Mont  Blanc ;  to  Montreux,  there  seeing  the  paradise  of 
Lake  Geneva  and  the  surrounding  Alps;  and  I  have 
stopped  over  for  a  day  each  in  Berne,  Basel,  and 
Cologne — at  the  latter  place  concluding  a  trip  down 
the  Rhine  from  Mayence. 

In  Paris  again,  after  a  six-weeks*  absence  on  my 
flying  tour  over  a  large  part  of  Continental  Europe,  I 
find  myself  in  possession  of  printed  and  other  data 
which  to  read  and  digest  fully  would  require  at  least 
six  months.  But  these  letters  are  not  intended  to 
record  my  conclusions  on  thorough  observation  and 
reflection,  but  rather  my  impressions  of  the  moment 
as  to  social  conditions  and  the  tendencies  of  the  Euro- 
pean labor  movement. 

In  Berne,  as  had  been  the  case  in  other  cities  visited, 
I  was  taken  in  hand  by  trade-union  representatives, 
who  showed  me  about  the  city  and  explained  the  labor 
situation  in  their  country.  The  national  unions  of 
Switzerland  have  a  building  of  their  own  in  Berne, 
a  fine  five-story  stone  house  in  a  good  neighborhood, 

118 


THE    SWISS    LABOR    MOVEMENT 

in  which  there  are  the  usual  meeting-rooms  and  the 
offices  of  the  national  secretaries.  As  I  have  already 
mentioned,  these  central  trade-union  buildings  in 
European  cities  have  the  appearance,  and  the  em- 
ployes in  the  suites  of  offices  a  good  deal  of  the  air, 
that  we  in  America  associate  with  the  headquarters 
of  big  corporations. 

The  labor  situation  of  Switzerland  has  peculiar  feat-^ 
ures.  A  considerable  part  of  the  country's  industrial 
operations  is  carried  on  in  the  rural  districts,  the  em- 
ployes working  on  their  own  little  strips  of  land  during 
the  short  farming  season  of  the  summer,  and  in  the 
factories  or  other  industrial  establishments  the  rest  of 
the  year.  The  product  of  their  agricultural  labors  is 
not  sufficient  to  maintain  them,  and  their  earnings  as 
employes  are  not  enough  to  induce  them  to  part  with 
their  little  land  and  become  once  and  for  all  a  part  of 
the  industrial  army.  Their  usual  hope,  I  was  told,  is 
to  save  what  money  will  buy  them  a  little  more  land. 
But  that  disappointment  in  regard  to  this  is  common 
is  seen  in  the  fact  that  the  movement  from  country  to 
city  is  steady  in  Switzerland,  much  as  it  is  in  other 
countries.  The  Swiss  Secretary  of  Labor,  in  a  recent 
publication,  shows  that  from  1850  to  1900  the  com- 
bined population  of  forty  country  districts  has  fallen 
off  from  476,965  to  431,417,  a  decrease  of  more  than 
45,000.  In  1850  these  districts  contained  19  per  cent 
of  the  Swiss  people;  in  1908,  only  13  per  cent.  On 
the  other  hand,  in  the  same  period  the  nineteen  Swiss 
cities  having  more  than  1 0,000  inhabitants  have  in- 
creased from  a  combined  population  of  152,819  to 

119 


LABOR   IN    EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

742,205.  However,  to  the  American,  accustomed  to 
seeing  the  methods  of  agriculture  on  a  large  scale  at 
home,  it  is  rather  surprising  that  the  Swiss  peasants 
do  not  emigrate  in  large  numbers  to  a  country  where 
their  habits  of  thrift  and  industry  and  knowledge  of 
cultivating  the  soil  would  yield  them  better  results. 
Their  own  mountain  land  is  under  snow  most  of  the 
year;  its  steep  hillsides  and  Alpine  heights  do  not  per- 
init  the  use  of  field  machinery.  Consequently,  the 

Y  work  has  to  be  carried  on  by  primitive  methods.  As 
I  came  along  through  green  valleys  the  hay  crop  was 
being  harvested — by  all  the  members  of  the  household 
usually — with  scythe  or  sickle  and  hand-rake. 

While   well-established   unions   have   existed    for 
.decades  in  a  score  of  trades  in  Switzerland,  the  Gen- 

/  eral  Federation  on  a  purely  economic  basis  has  been 
but  recently  founded.  The  mingled  political  and 
trade-union  movement,  which  so  long  influenced  the 
masses,  brought  about  extremely  unsatisfactory  re- 
sults. In  French  Switzerland  continual  political  dis- 
sension drove  out  of  the  unions  many  of  their  ad- 
herents, while  others  joined  the  so-called  Christian 

/unions,  and  still  others  took  up  with  the  Anarchist 
unionists,  whose  chief  tenets  are  the  general  strike, 
"direct  action, "  and  anti  -  militarism ;  in  fact,  at 
present  it  seems  that  the  Anarchists  have  the  lead 
in  the  French  -  speaking  Swiss  labor  organizations. 
Against  them  much  of  the  writing  in  the  Socialist 
and  federated  union  press  is  directed. 

The  short  standing  of  the  present  national  Swiss 
labor  movement,  which  is  on  the  plan  of  the  American 

120 


THE    SWISS    LABOR    MOVEMENT 

Federation  of  Labor,  is  indicated  in  the  fact  that  the 
organ  of  the  metal  workers,  the  strongest  of  the  unions, 
is  only  in  its  eighth  year  of  publication,  while  that  of 
the  workers  in  alimentary  products  and  that  of  the 
federated  national  unions  (La  Revue  Syndicate)  are 
in  their  first  year. 

An  obstacle  to  the  national  organization  of  trade 
unions  (V  Union  Suisse  des  Federations  Syndicate)  is  / 
the  existence  of  the  "local  labor  union."  In  this' 
body  are  mingled  men  of  any  trade  or  business  or 
profession  who  wish  to  become  members,  together 
with  the  local  unions  of  the  regular  trade  organiza- 
tions. Commenting  on  the  disadvantages  of  such 
an  association,  the  July  Revue  Syndicate  says  it  is 
"the  arena  of  the  champions  of  local  politics."  Strikes 
are  therein  precipitated  and  boycotts  instituted  de- 
spite the  wishes  of  the  national  unions  directly  in- 
terested. A  ceaseless  fight  has  also  been  waged  i 
them  against  the  assessments,  the  officials,  and  the 
benefit  features  of  the  federated  unions.  Further: 
"Certain  politicians  of  the  locality  profit  so  much 
from  the  'local  labor  union'  as  a  source  of  power  that 
the  wage  workers  get  disgusted  with  the  movement'' 
and  '  *  quit  the  devil  to  fall  into  the  arms  of  his  grand- 
mother." The  Revue,  in  its  article,  describes  these 
combinations  of  all  sorts  of  people  in  the  "local 
union"  as  promoting  strikes  without  considering 
their  effect,  and,  contrary  to  the  advice  of  the  fed- 
erated committees  affected,  of  issuing  numerous  sub- 
scription lists,  of  voting  assessments  to  support  strike 
and  similar  movements  long  after  their  failure. 

121 


LABOR    IN    EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

Neither  the  regular  local  union  secretaries  nor  the 
editors  of  the  local  labor  press  could  do  other  than 
please  those  politicians  in  power.  This  description 
of  the  outcome  of  the  indiscriminate  mixing  up  of  all 
kinds  of  alleged  social  reformers  ought  to  be  inter- 
esting to  those  American  semi  -  unionists  and  semi- 
politicians  who  are  dissastisfied  with  the  American 
labor  movement  as  it  exists.  And  it  has  its  welcome 
lessons  also  to  the  trade  unionists  who  are  satisfied 
that  their  course  is  the  right  one. 

In  one  of  the  Swiss  labor  papers,  a  correspondent 
/  writing  from  Martigny  takes  note  of  the  efforts  of 
several  of  the  leaders  in  religious  circles  to  form  a 
local  "Christian  trade  union."  He  adds:  "The 
working-class  is  divided  into  Catholic,  Protestant, 
Liberal,  and  Socialist  trade  unions."  The  clergy  who 
promote  the  Christian  trade  unions  defend  their 
course  by  showing  that  the  Socialists,  who  have 
sought,  often  with  success,  to  rule  the  unions,  are 
opposed  to  the  Church.  Significant,  this  state  of 
affairs,  too! 

4  The  activity  of  the  boycott  in  Switzerland  was 
noticeable.  A  large  tobacco  factory  was  asking  for 
a  treaty  of  peace  with  organized  labor  and  a  trade 
agreement,  in  consequence  of  a  boycott  that  had 
diminished  its  output  month  by  month  for  several 
years.  Regarding  another  article  under  boycott, 
L' Alimentation  printed  this  paragraph:  "We  recom- 
mend to  all  our  comrades  not  to  purchase  it,  and  to 
promote  the  boycott  upon  it  in  the  cafes,  barber 
shops,  etc."  The  labor  press  of  the  country  is  united 

122 


THE    SWISS    LABOR    MOVEMENT 

on  this  one  subject,  if  on  no  other.  In  Switzerland 
there  are  twenty  trade-union  organs  printed  in  Ger- 
man, six  in  French,  and  three  in  Italian,  one  co- 
operative organ  in  French,  German,  and  Italian  each, 
and  twelve  political  labor  newspapers  in  German, 
two  in  French,  and  two  in  Italian. 

Of  course,  no  traveller  can  pass  through  Switzerland 
without  having  his  attention  attracted  to  its  hotel 
"industry."  The  labor  press  has  its  opinions  as  to 
the  way  it  is  carried  on.  Mentioning  the  fact  that 
in  1905  the  little  country  had  more  than  nineteen 
hundred  hotels,  with  a  total  of  one  hundred  and 
twenty-five  thousand  "beds,"  the  Revue  Syndicate 
deplores  the  situation  of  the  hotel  waiters,  especially 
as  their  character  as  men  is  concerned.  ' '  Self-respect, 
honesty,  love  of  liberty,  and  the  sentiment  of  personal 
dignity" — all  that  comes  to  an  end.  "Instead  of 
learning  useful  labor — that  is,  a  good  trade — thousands 
of  intelligent  young  men  become  hotel  messengers, 
bootblacks,  porters  hanging  about  railway  stations, 
and  kitchen  assistants."  "Our  conclusion  is  that 
the  hotel  industry  has  but  increased  our  dependence 
on  foreign  countries." 

While  the  Swiss  do  not  emigrate  except  in  small 
numbers,  the  considerable  immigration  into  Switzer- 
land is  indicated  by  the  census  of  its  members  by 
nationalities  taken  by  the  Swiss  Federation  of  Metal- 
workers in  1907,  when  it  had  17,824  members.  Of 
these  12,925  were  Swiss,  2,692  Germans,  265  French, 
651  Austro-Hungarians,  862  Italians,  and  426  of  other 
nations;  that  is,  nearly  30  per  cent  were  foreigners. 

123 


LABOR    IN    EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

'Throughout  Continental  Europe  the  " metal- workers' " 
union  takes  in  a  score  of  occupations  for  which  we  have 
different  unions  in  America — locksmiths,  tin- workers, 
blacksmiths,  boilermakers,  cutlers,  puddlers,  molders, 
foundry  laborers,  machinists,  watchmakers,  jewellers, 
etc.  The  general  level  of  money  wages  is  indicated 
by  the  fact  that  400  of  2,350  union  metal-workers  in 
Zurich  work  nine  hours  a  day,  and  the  rest  nine  and  a 
half  hours,  and  that  among  1,119  of  them  the  average 
wages  is  a  little  more  than  twelve  cents  an  hour. 

In  Basel  I  spent  an  interesting  half  day  in  the  com- 
pany of  representatives  of  the  co-operative  move- 
ment and  in  the  International  Association  to  Promote 
Labor  Legislation.  For  the  city  of  Basel  the  number 
of  members  in  the  local  co-operative  society  aver- 
ages nearly  one  for  each  family.  The  labor  legislation 
just  at  present  chiefly  engaging  the  attention  of  the 

j  association  named  is  uniform  laws  for  the  protection 

*  of  women  and  children. 

Cologne  I  found  to  be  rather  behindhand  as  com- 
pared with  other  German  cities  in  general  movements 
for  working-class  welfare.  But  it  has  within  a  few 
years  taken  a  start  in  a  purely  labor  movement — and 
put  it  on  its  feet  firmly — that  promises  a  progressive 
development.  No  more  satisfactory  interviews  in 
this  respect  have  I  had  with  trade-union  leaders  any- 
where in  Europe.  And  it  came  about  in  a  most  un- 
expected manner.  Cologne  was  on  my  itinerary  only 
for  a  brief  stop,  and  the  men  of  labor  were  unaware 
that  I  was  going  to  drop  in  on  them.  After  a  rather 
cursory  "peep"  into  some  of  the  home  and  working 

124 


THE    SWISS    LABOR    MOVEMENT 

conditions,  I  soon  found  the  labor  headquarters. 
While  climbing  the  massive  stone  stairs  up  to  the 
third  story  (they  have  few  elevators  in  office  buildings 
in  Europe),  I  mentioned  my  mission  to  a  man  who 
was  preceding  me.  He  recognized  me,  and  greeted 
me  cordially.  He  proved  to  be  the  secretary  of  the 
local  wood-workers'  union,  a  well-informed  and  in- 
telligent man.  He  invited  me  into  his  well-appointed 
office,  and  was  glad  to  impart  all  possible  information 
in  connection  with  labor  conditions  and  the  struggles 
which  the  unions  have  had  and  still  have  with  em- 
ployers as  well  as  the  leaders  of  the  Socialist  political 
party.  His  views  on  the  last-named  subject  can 
best  be  given  in  his  own  words.  "We  have,"  said  he,  > 
"the  same  contentions  in  Germany  that  you  have  to/ 
a  lesser  degree  in  America  with  the  leaders  of  the 
Socialist  party.  I  noticed  the  attacks  on  you  in  the 
Berlin  Vorwdrts  and  Neue  Zeit,  and  the  Leipzic  Volks- 
Zeitung.  But  what  of  that  ?  These  Socialist  papers 
are  edited,  as  the  party  is  led,  not  by  working-men, 
but  by  so-called  'intellectuals,'  professors  and  others 
of  the  same  sort,  who  know  nothing  of  the  real  life, 
the  conditions,  and  struggles  of  the  workers.  These 
writers  and  leaders  ?  Why,  we  are  in  constant  strife 
with  them  in  defending  the  trade  -  union  movement 
from  their  meddling  and  attempts  at  domination. 
The  same  bitter  tactics  that  they  have  displayed 
toward  you  they  employ  toward  Carl  Legien  [the 
President  of  the  German  Trade  Union  Federation]. 
Why?  Because  he  dares  to  stand  true  to  the  trade- 
union  movement  in  defence  of  and  for  the  advance- 
rs 


LABOR    IN    EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

ment  of  the  workers'  interests.  These  writers  con- 
sult their  books,  and  are  blinded  by  their  theories. 
In  a  word,  the  difference  between  them  and  us  is  they 
are  in  the  clouds  while  we  are  on  terra  firma."  He 
called  attention  to  the  fact  that  in  nearly  every  trade 
in  Germany  there  exist  three  or  four  antagonistic 
national  trade  unions,  each  of  which  issues  an  official 
weekly  paper  opposing  the  true  unions  of  labor. 
"These  facts/'  added  my  informant,  "as  well  as  the 
organization  of  the  employers,  compel  us  to  pursue 
the  common-sense  methods  of  making  the  best  efforts 
not  only  to  organize  the  workers,  but  also  to  unite 
the  unions  in  one  comprehensive  movement."  He 
added  much  useful  information  of  equal  value  relat- 
ing to  the  growing  independence  of  the  German  labor 
movement  with  regard  to  political-party  domination. 

Then  I  met  the  secretaries  of  the  metal- workers'  and 
of  the  typographical  unions.  The  former  has  com- 
piled and  published  an  excellent  pamphlet  on  the 
housing  conditions  of  his  fellow  -  craftsmen,  which, 
according  to  him,  are  miserable  and  degrading.  One 
of  his  criticisms  of  official  opinion  and  action  is  es- 
pecially noteworthy.  He  declares  that  the  Cologne 
official  conception  of  working-class  overcrowding  be- 
gins only  "when  more  than  six  persons  live  in  one 
room,  and  more  than  eleven  persons  in  two  rooms." 
What  a  commentary  on  civic  duty — on  civilization! 

The  Secretary  of  the  Cologne  Typographical  Union 
having  invited  me  to  visit  the  office  of  the  Daily 
Zeitung,  I  accompanied  him,  rather  for  the  purpose 
of  making  inquiries  of  him  on  the  way  than  in  ex- 

126 


THE    SWISS    LABOR    MOVEMENT 

pectation  of  seeing  anything  unusual  in  a  printing- 
office.  But  I  did  see  something  extraordinary.  This 
extraordinary  thing  was  not  the  cleanliness,  the  ex- 
treme tidiness  of  every  room  in  the  building,  hardly 
a  bit  of  paper  being  seen  lying  on  the  floors  any- 
where. Nor  was  it  in  the  high  polish  of  the  granite 
stairway  walls,  nor  the  mosaic  flooring,  nor  the  lockers 
for  every  one  of  the  employes,  nor  the  excellent  ar- 
rangements for  light  and  ventilation.  In  every  de- 
partment the  equipment  was  new  looking,  and  every 
bit  of  it,  I  was  assured,  was  a  model  of  its  kind,  and 
every  kind  to  be  seen  was  the  latest.  But  all  this 
could  not  be  called  extraordinary.  We  have  some 
fine  printing-offices  in  every  city  of  the  United  States. 
But  what  our  big  country  has  not,  and  is  not  likely 
soon  to  have,  the  Cologne  Zeitung  has.  It  has  one 
hundred  and  thirty-one  hand  compositors  in  its  com- 
posing-rooms, and  not  one  composing-machine.  A/ 
corps  of  healthy  and  intelligent-looking  men  it  is 
that  gets  out  the  Zeitung  and  the  books  and  other 
newspapers  it  prints.  There  they  stand,  upright,  at 
the  type-cases,  lifting  letter  by  letter,  just  as  we  used 
to  see  men  in  the  newspaper  offices  in  America  twenty 
years  ago,  setting  up  the  news  and  the  editorials  and 
the  advertisements.  And  there's  not  a  typesetting- 
machine  in  any  daily  newspaper  office  in  Cologne! 
Well,  the  men  report  themselves  satisfied,  the  man- 
ager told  me  he  was  satisfied,  and  why  shouldn't  we 
Americans  be  satisfied  ?  And  satisfied,  also,  may  be 
the  economist  who  wishes  to  illustrate  his  doctrine 
that  comparatively  high  wages  do  not  certainly  imply 

127 


LABOR    IN    EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

a  comparative  high  cost  of  product.  My  authentic 
information  is  that  the  compositors  working  on  the 
New  York  morning  newspapers  have  a  minimum 
of  $31  per  week,  time-work;  the  compositors  of  the 
Cologne  Zeitung  earn,  at  piece-work,  $12.50  and  up- 
ward— not  very  far  upward.  A  machine  compositor 
on  a  New  York  paper  will  turn  out  four  times  the 
product  of  a  compositor  on  the  Cologne  Zeitung. 

On  my  arrival  in  Paris  I  saw  a  large  gathering  of 
men  in  front  of  the  " Bourse  du  Travail,"  and  learned 
that  the  bricklayers  were  out  on  a  strike — sixteen 
thousand  of  them.  In  a  few  hours  I  had  a  lengthy 
conference  at  a  meeting  with  the  ten  members  of  the 
Executive  Committee  who  are  charged  by  the  men 
with  the  leadership  of  the  strike.  The  committee 

Iquite  readily  gave  me  the  reasons  for  the  dispute. 

JThe  men  demanded  the  abolition  of  the  "sweaters" 
and  sub-contractors,  the  nine-hour  day,  an  increase  of 
five  cents  an  hour,  and  a  regular  settlement  day  for 
their  wages — once  a  month.  The  men  and  their 
leaders  express  confidence  in  the  success  of  their 
movement — at  least,  in  securing  an  improvement  in 
existing  conditions.  The  hours  of  labor  for  the  brick- 
layers up  to  the  present  have  been  ten  per  day — min- 
imum. And  yet  theorists  and  faddists  in  Europe 
and  even  in  the  United  States  insist  that  American 
workers'  unions  are  too  conservative  and  reactionary. 
What  is  the  answer  ?  By  their  fruits  shall  ye  know 
them.  Our  building  trades  have  the  eight-hour  day, 
the  Saturday  half -holiday,  and  wages  double  or  treble 
those  paid  in  European  countries. 

128 


AT  THE  PARIS  CONGRESS  OF  THE  INTERNATIONAL 
SECRETARIAT 

PARIS,  September  3,  1909. 

THE  sixth  "International  Conference  of  the  Secre- 
taries of  National  Trade  Union  Centers"  was  held  in 
Paris  on  Monday,  Tuesday,  and  Wednesday  of  the 
present  week.  The  association  of  these  officials  is 
usually  referred  to  as  the  "International  Secretariat." 

The  first  conference,  held  in  Halberstadt  in  1900,  was 
followed  by  others — at  Stuttgart  (1902),  Dublin  (1903), 
Amsterdam  (1905),  and  Christiania  (1907).  From 
1904  until  the  present  year  the  General  Confederation 
of  Labor  of  France  abstained  from  co-operation  with 
the  Secretariat,  but  rejoined  recently  and  paid  up 
back  dues.  As  a  mark  of  acknowledgment,  the  pres- 
ent conference  was  held  in  Paris,  and  as  the  President 
of  the  American  Federation  of  Labor  was  to  be  on  the 
Continent  this  year  the  date  was  made  for  1909  in- 
stead of  1910. 

The  list  of  the  representatives  present  tells  of  itself 
a  story  to  the  initiated  who  are  watching  the  tenden- 
cies of  the  international  labor  movement.  The  Gen- 
eral Federation  of  Trades  of  Great  Britain  sent  W.  A. 
Appleton,  its  secretary,  and  Allen  Gee,  of  the  textile 
workers — this  federation,  it  will  be  remembered,  being 
the  one  concerned  in  bringing  the  British  unions  to- 
9  129 


LABOR   IN    EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

gether  for  mutual  support  in  time  of  strikes  or  lock- 
outs, its  total  membership  now  seven  hundred  thou- 
sand. France  sent  L.  Jouhaux,  the  new  General 
Secretary  of  the  Confederation  du  Travail  (known 
commonly  as  the  "C.  G.  T."),  and  Georges  Yvetot,  the 
popular  orator  of  that  body,  both  champions  of  the 
general  strike,  " direct  action,"  anti-militarism,  and 
anti-parliamentarism.  Their  opponents  refer  to  them 
as  Anarchists.  Holland  sent  J.  Oudegeest,  of  Am- 
sterdam, a  Socialist  member  of  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives and  a  committeeman  of  the  diamond  work- 
ers' union.  From  Belgium  came  Camille  Huysmans, 
General  Secretary  of  the  International  Socialist  Sec- 
retariat, whose  headquarters  are  in  the  Maison  du 
Peuple,  Brussels,  and  J.  Bergmans.  Germany's  repre- 
sentatives were  C.  Legien,  President  of  the  General 
Commission  of  the  German  trade  unions  and  Secre- 
tary of  the  International  Trade  Union  Secretariat  as 
well,  and  J.  Sassenbach,  Secretary  of  the  German 
National  Saddlers'  Union  and  librarian  of  the  General 
Commission.  Austria  sent  A.  Hueber,  of  Vienna,  So- 
cialist member  of  the  Austrian  House  of  Representa- 
tives and  Secretary  of  the  national  " centre"  of  trade 
unions,  and  F.  A.  Jura,  of  Moravia.  Italy's  chief 
representative  was  Rinaldo  Rigola,  of  Turin,  Secre- 
tary of  the  Italian  General  Confederation  of  Labor, 
recently  a  Socialist  member  of  the  Italian  Chamber 
of  Deputies;  the  other  being  J.  Quaglino,  Secretary  of 
the  Italian  national  building  trades  unions,  also  of 
Turin.  Others  present  as  representatives  were:  Den- 
mark— C.  F.  Madsden  and  C.  Cran,  Copenhagen;  Nor- 

130 


THE    PARIS    INTERNATIONAL    CONGRESS 

way — Ole  O.  Lian,  Christiania;  Hungary — S.  Jazsai, 
Budapest ;  Croatia — W.  Bukseg,  Agram ;  Switzerland — 
J.  Huggler,  Berne;  Spain — Vicente  Barrio,  Madrid.  A 
representative  from  Roumania,  M.  Racovsky,  was 
given  a  seat  without  a  vote,  though  Secretary  Legien 
had  said  he  was  without  information  as  to  the  status, 
or  even  existence,  of  trade  unions  in  Roumania,  or  as 
to  whether  M.  Racovsky  lived  in  that  country  or  in 
Paris.  This  gentleman,  I  am  told,  spoke  French  with 
a  Gallic  accent.  Servia  and  Finland,  while  connected 
with  the  Secretariat,  were  unrepresented,  as  was  also 
Sweden,  on  account  of  its  general  strike. 

The  question  as  to  whether  the  American  Federa- 
tion of  Labor  was  formally  represented  in  the  Con- 
ference came  up  after  the  reading  of  the  secretary's 
reports.  Mr.  Legien  then  said  he  was  authorized  to 
make  inquiries  on  this  point.  Was  the  adhesion  of  the 
American  representative  final,  or  would  the  American 
Federation  of  Labor  retire  if  the  conclusions  of  the 
Conference  were  not  according  to  its  liking  ? 

In  reply,  Samuel  Gompers  said  that  the  American 
Federation  of  Labor  is  the  working-class  movement 
of  the  continent  of  America;  that  it  desires  to  come 
into  closer  relations  with  the  working-class  move- 
ment of  Europe  and  all  civilized  countries.  One 
thing,  however,  was  to  be  understood:  every  country 
is  to  decide  upon  its  own  policy,  tactics,  and  tenden- 
cies. In  every  way  possible  the  unions  of  America 
promote  an  international  solidarity.  It  was  from 
the  American  Federation  of  Labor  that  first  came 
the  suggestion  of  May  ist  as  a  European  labor  day. 


LABOR   IN   EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

The  cards  of  established  trade  unions  of  European 
countries  are  accepted  by  many  of  the  American 
unions.  An  obstacle  to  America's  representation  in 
the  Conference  hitherto  was  the  antagonism  shown 
in  America  to  trade  unions  by  those  who  would  have 
the  policy,  tactics,  and  general  methods  of  the  Ameri- 
can working-class  movement  submitted  to  the  censor- 
ship or  decision  of  men  knowing  nothing  of  American 
conditions.  Several  years  ago  the  suggestion  was  made 
from  America  that,  just  as  fraternal  delegates  are  sent 
to  the  British  Trade  Union  Congress,  there  might  be 
sent  delegates  to  an  international  meeting — a  method 
that  would  avoid  the  exclusiveness  of  a  Secretariat. 
The  speaker  was  at  present  in  Europe  in  response  to 
an  invitation  from  the  British  Parliamentary  Com- 
mittee to  attend  the  coming  Congress  at  Ipswich, 
and  the  occasion  was  seized  by  the  Denver  conven- 
tion of  the  American  Federation  of  Labor  last  Novem- 
ber to  authorize  him  to  attend  the  present  Conference. 
He  had  not  been  elected  as  a  delegate.  The  prop- 
ositions appearing  in  the  agenda  as  coming  from 
America,  he  had  regarded,  when  writing  them  in  his 
letters  to  Mr.  Legien,  as  simply  suggestions.  He 
could  not  say  what  action  the  American  Federation 
of  Labor  would  take  at  its  next  convention  in  regard 
to  joining  the  Secretariat  formally.  In  the  proceed- 
ings thus  far  he  had  neither  voted  nor  spoken  on  any 
question  before  the  Conference. 

That  this  exact  statement  of  the  conditions  under 
which  the  speaker  was  in  attendance  was  distasteful 
to  certain  of  the  secretaries  present  was  immediately 

132 


THE    PARIS    INTERNATIONAL    CONGRESS 

shown  in  rejoinders  made  by  Mr.  Hueber,  of  Austria, 
and  Mr.  Oudegeest,  of  Amsterdam.  Mr.  Hueber  de- 
clared he  knew  beforehand  what  was  to  be  expected. 
What  "Comrade  —  pardon,  'Colleague'  —  Gompers" 
had  said  was,  in  effect,  that  he  would  not  join  the 
International  Secretariat.  No  doubt  this  was  in 
conformity  with  his  "constructive  politics."  Why 
should  Gompers  come  here  with  stories  about  the 
struggles  in  America?  Each  delegate  present  might 
do  the  same.  He  had  come  in  the  character  of 
mentor,  to  give  advice.  The  speaker  thanked  him, 
but  veterans  were  in  the  Conference  who  knew  as 
much  about  the  social  struggle  as  he  did.  It  was 
regrettable  that  the  advice  of  Gompers  should  be 
welcomed  by  the  American  employing  class.  In 
concluding,  he  doubted  the  existence  of  the  under- 
standing between  America  and  foreign  unions,  by 
which  the  former  accepted  members  of  the  lat- 
ter by  card.  He  had  heard  nothing  but  com- 
plaints of  the  actions  of  American  unions  in  this  re- 
spect. 

Mr.  Oudegeest's  remarks  were  to  the  effect  that  he 
regarded  it  as  Mr.  Gompers'  duty  to  act  as  a  regular 
delegate.  America  would  not  have  sent  him  other- 
wise. His  resolutions  had  been  made  part  of  the 
agenda.  From  the  International  Secretariat  was  ex- 
cluded all  questions  relating  to  theory;  no  country 
need  have  any  fear  that  its  own  particular  methods 
should  be  interfered  with.  But  upon  this  assertion 
Mr.  Oudegeest  threw  doubt  in  the  next  breath  when 
he  spoke  of  "the  class  struggles  as  'we'  understand 


LABOR    IN    EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

it,"  and  the  duty  of  Mr.  Gompers  to  use  his  influence 
in  its  promotion. 

To  these  speeches  the  writer  replied  that  he  could 
not  hold  himself  responsible  for  the  construction 
placed  on  his  acts  by  Mr.  Hueber.  -  Whatever  was 
possible  to  Mr.  Hueber  in  Austria,  he  could  not  of 
himself  declare  the  American  Federation  a  party  in 
the  International  Secretariat.  In  America  the  mem- 
bers, not  the  officers,  decide  upon  such  questions. 
The  speaker  cited  as  examples  of  the  acceptance  of  • 
European  membership  cards  the  action  of  the  molders'' 
union,  the  typographical  union,  the  cigarmakers', 
brewers',  bakers',  miners',  and  window-glass  makers' 
unions.  He  explained  in  detail  the  steps  necessary 
to  take  in  order  to  have  the  American  Federation  of 
Labor  join  the  Secretariat  or  a  similar  body.  He 
would  do  his  best  to  bring  about  a  good  understand- 
ing, and,  possibly,  co-operation. 

The  result  of  the  discussion,  which  took  up  two 
hours,  was  that  Samuel  Gompers  was  given  a  seat  in 
the  convention,  with  a  right  to  speak,  but  without, 
vote.  His  proposition  for  the  formation  of  an  "Iry 
ternational  Federation  of  Labor,"  to  which  delegates 
might  be  regularly  elected,  was,  as  the  resolution  itself 
provided,  referred  to  the  various  countries  as  a  matter 
to  be  studied,  taken  up  for  discussion,  and  placed  on 
the  program  for  action  by  the  next  conference. 

A  second  subject  which  brought  out  an  exhibition 
of  the  attitude  and  manner  of  those  in  the  Conference  . 
who  believe  that  theirs  must  perforce  be  the  world's/ 
labor   movement,   was  the  recommendation   of  the 


THE    PARIS    INTERNATIONAL    CONGRESS 

Christ iania  Conference  as  to  the  interchange  of  trade- 
union  cards.     Section  (b)  reads:   "As  to  the  right  to 
benefits  and  any  other  advantages  of  the  union,  the 
total  amount  of  subscriptions   (dues)   paid,  and  of 
the  time  of  membership  in  the  late  organization  will 
be  counted ;  in  no  case  can  a  longer  time  of  member- 
ship be  put  down  to  a  member's  account  than  he  has 
been  in  his  late  organization."     Mr.  Hueber  made  a 
long  speech  criticising  the  English  delegates  for  non- 
action   on   this   recommendation.     He   did   not   ask 
for  their  "good  will,"  but  proof  of  solidarity.     Had 
they  no  report  to  make  why  nothing  practical  had 
been  done  in  the  matter?     Mr.  Appleton,  in  reply, 
explained  that  the  English  trade  unions  had  high 
subscriptions    (dues)    and   important   benefit   funds, 
while  some  of  the  Continental  unions  had  small  sub- 
scriptions and  no  benefit  funds.     As  a  great  many 
more   Continental   workmen   went  to  England  than 
the  number  of  Englishmen  going  to  the  Continent, 
their  unions  might  be  bankrupted  if  they  admitted 
their  foreign  comrades  on  the  basis  recommended  in 
the  Christiania  resolution.     It  was  a  subject  that  the 
English  local  unions  must  fully  discuss;  no  secretary 
could  impose  his  will  on  a  union  in  Great  Britain. 
Some   of   the   English   unions — the   lacemakers,   for 
example — had  treaties  with  Continental  unions  with 
regard  to  the  scale  of  prices  and  interchange  of  cards. 
The  situation  in  these  regards  was  gradually  becom- 
ing   more    satisfactory.     To    this    explanation,    Mr. 
Hueber  retorted  that   if  the   English  wished,   they 
could  do  better  than  they  were  doing ;  the  resolutions 


LABOR   IN   EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

of  the  Conference  should  have  been  better  received 
and  discussed.  England  was  sending  blacklegs  to 
the  Continent.  Mr.  Huysmans  said  it  set  his  teeth 
on  edge  to  hear  the  English  and  American  delegates 
constantly  invoking  the  principle  of  democracy  in 
order  not  to  apply  resolutions  which  had  been  passed. 
Democracy  consisted  in  the  application  of  decisions 
arrived  at  in  common.  The  English  reminded  the 
rest  of  their  large  numbers;  the  Germans  might,  if 
they  wished,  do  the  same.  This  discussion  was  next 
day  referred  to  by  the  London  Daily  News  as  "acri- 
monious" as  between  the  Austrian  and  the  English 
delegates;  but  the  latter's  defence  consisted  entirely 
in  making,  without  heat  or  personalities,  a  plain 
statement  of  fact. 

A  little  while  later  a  third  incident  occurred  to 
reveal  the  spirit  of  intolerance  actuating  the  party 
whose  members  believe  its  "virtues"  entitle  it  to 
rule.  It  came  just  after  the  Conference  had  con- 
sidered and  accepted  without  vote,  as  a  communica- 
tion, the  following  suggestion  from  the  American 
Federation  of  Labor:  "That  the  International  Con- 
ference recommends  to  the  trade -union  centers  of 
all  countries  the  discussion  of  the  proposition  of  es- 
tablishing an  International  Federation  of  Labor,  the 
autonomy  of  the  trade-union  movement  of  each 
country  being  ordained  and  guaranteed,  the  purpose 
of  the  federation  being  for  the  protection  and  advance- 
ment of  the  rights,  interests,  and  justice  of  the  wage 
workers  of  all  countries,  and  the  establishment  of 
international  fraternity  and  solidarity."  The  French 

136 


THE    PARIS    INTERNATIONAL    CONGRESS 

delegates  introduced  a  proposition  for  the  trans- 
formation of  the  Conference  of  Secretaries  into  an 
International  Trade- Union  Congress,  with  delegates 
regularly  elected,  " instead  of  functionaries,"  and 
which  should  discuss  measures  already  passed  upon 
by  the  unions  interested.  Before  the  proposers  had 
submitted  one  word  of  argument  in  support  of  their 
plan,  Mr.  Hueber  rose  and  read  a  joint  declaration 
giving  the  reasons  of  ten  signers  why  the  proposition 
should  be  rejected.  It  was  signed  by  the  delegates 
present  from  a  majority  of  the  countries  taking  part 
in  the  Conference.  Mr.  Huysmans  had  written  the 
paper  and  circulated  it  among  the  delegates  to  ob- 
tain signatures.  Mr.  Hueber  added  these  remarks, 
among  others,  which  occasioned  a  long  debate:  "The 
holding  of  a  labor  congress  would  be  impossible  and 
inopportune.  Political  action  and  trade  -  union  ac- 
tion are  the  two  arms  put  into  motion  by  the  will 
of  the  proletariat.  It  was  necessary  to  act  with  the 
two  arms  and  to  unite  the  two  movements.  The 
working- world,  to  ameliorate  the  situation,  has  cer- 
tainly need  of  trade-union  action,  but  it  has  as  a 
principal  support  parliamentary  Socialism.  What 
end  could  the  International  Labor  congresses  serve, 
since  there  are  already  two  International  Socialist 
congresses?"  On  practical  grounds,  and  without 
reference  to  the  reasoning  of  Mr.  Hueber,  the  Ger- 
man and  English  delegates  declined  to  join  with  the 
French  in  support  of  the  proposition.  Many  inter- 
mediate steps  must  be  first  taken,  the  necessary 
unity  in  labor's  ranks  being  a  preliminary  condition. 


tu 

I 

/th 


LABOR   IN    EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

The  French  delegates,  after  declaring  that  Mr.  Hue- 
ber's  figures  of  "the  two  arms  of  the  movement" 
really  did  not  express  his  views,  but  he  ought  to  have 
said  he  believed  the  big  Socialist  ship  was  tugging 
behind  it  the  little  trade-union  rowboat,  withdrew 
their  motion. 

While  it  is  not  an  easy  task  to  condense  into  a 
few  paragraphs  a  description  of  the  spirit  and  atti- 
tude of  the  men  assuming  to  dominate  the  Conference, 
can  be  said,  without  possibility  of  contradiction, 
f  .that  the  two  divergent  tendencies  of  the  labor  move- 
/ment — toward  Parliamentary  Socialism  and  toward 
independent  trade-unionism  —  was  not  out  of  the 
minds  of  the  delegates  at  any  time  during  the  Con- 
ference when  the  probable  interests  of  either  side 
were  even  remotely  at  stake.  The  Paris  reporters 
present  in  general  took  it  for  granted  that  whatever 
was  said  by  Hueber,  Oudegeest,  or  Huysmans,  as  the 
leaders  on  one  side,  was  one  word  for  trade-unionism 
and  two  for  Socialism.  After  mentioning  ''the  an- 
tagonism between  the  two  tendencies  in  the  unions," 
La  Petite  Republique  thus  introduced  its  description 
of  the  incident  relative  to  the  proposed  International 
Congress:  "Between  the  C.  G.  T.,  representing  the 
purely  trade-unionist  tendency,  exempt  of  all  politi- 
cal action,  and  the  foreign  organizations,  equally  at- 
tached to  political  action  and  union  action,  a  decisive 
shock  was  inevitable,  attended  on  both  sides  with 
equal  impatience."  Mr.  Hueber,  as  the  spokesman 
for  the  Socialist  tendency,  was  not  fortunate  enough 
in  his  bearing  and  oratory  to  secure  the  good  will 

138 


THE    PARIS    INTERNATIONAL    CONGRESS 

even  of  some  of  the  Socialist  reporters.  L'Humanite, 
of  which  Jean  Jaures,  the  Socialist  leader  in  the 
Chamber  of  Deputies,  is  editor,  spoke  of  Mr.  Hueber  as 
"responding,  not  without  virulence,  to  the  long  and 
ardent  discourse  of  Gompers."  In  another  instance 
La  Petite  Republique  referred  to  Mr.  Hueber  "pro- 
testing with  violence,"  and  the  Journal  spoke  of  his 
" usual  heat."  La  Guerre  Sociale,  Gustave  Herve's 
paper,  described  the  voice  of  Mr.  Hueber  as  "trumpet- 
like  and  brutal." 

I  do  not  pronounce  against  the  American  Federa- 
tion of  Labor  sending  a  delegate  to  the  International 
Conference  of  Secretaries;  on  the  contrary,  it  should 
be  done.  But  it  is  well  to  let  Americans,  and  partic- 
ularly American  trade  unionists,  have  a  view  of  the 
salient  traits  of  the  meeting  of  the  secretaries  just 
held.  Nothing  is  more  important  than  to  know  be- 
forehand who  and  what  are  the  usual  elements  of 
a  convention  or  conference.  As  the  secretaries  above 
mentioned  are  the  permanent  representatives  so  long 
as  they  hold  their  positions,  what  is  to  be  expected 
from  them  may  be  seen.  In  a  deliberative  body, 
these  are  important  questions:  Are  the  members 
open  to  reason,  without  prejudice,  and  willing  to 
change  their  opinions  and  course  of  action  according 
to  new  evidence  and  thought?  Are  they  subject  to 
outside  influence?  Are  they  accustomed  to  restrict 
themselves  to  the  business  in  hand,  and  not  to  impose 
their  views  as  to  foreign  matters  upon  their  fellow- 
delegates?  Are  they  moderate  in  speech,  and  in  the 
habit  of  observing  the  amenities  of  debate?  Or  are 


LABOR   IN   EUROPE   AND   AMERICA 

they  simply  using  one  organization  for  the  upbuilding 
of  another  ?  The  question  for  the  American  Federa- 
tion of  Labor  to  decide,  relative  to  joining  the  Secre- 
tariat, is :  Even  supposing  that  with  respect  to  several 
of  the  International  Secretaries  the  foregoing  queries 
bring  a  disappointing  answer,  will  it  still  not  be  help- 
ful to  international  trade-unionism  to  send  a  delegate 
/to  the  Conference  two  years  hence  ?  My  answer  must 
be  an  emphatic  "Yes!" 

The  proceedings  of  the  Conference  continually  re- 
minded the  American  that  he  was  far  from  his  own 
country  and  its  institutions.  Every  speech  had  to 
be  repeated  on  the  spot  in  at  least  three  languages. 
At  the  opening  of  the  session  an  hour  or  more  was 
taken  up  with  the  question  whether  the  Press  repre- 
sentatives and  the  public  should  be  admitted.  Some 
of  the  delegates  wanted  a  continuous  executive  ses- 
sion. No  tables  or  seats  had  been  provided  for  the 
reporters.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  decision  to 
give  the  Press  men  the  best  seats  next  the  delegates 
and  to  admit  everybody  until  the  hall  should  be  full 
came  about  partly  through  the  American  guest's  up- 
holding, without  taking  the  floor,  the  custom  of  his 
own  land  of  free  speech  and  entire  publicity.  An 
American — the  millionaire  "hobo,"  claiming  to  rep- 
resent the  unemployed  of  the  United  States — asked 
for  a  seat  in  the  Conference,  and  invited  it  to  send 
a  delegate  to  an  international  conference  of  the  un- 
employed next  year  in  Chicago,  adding  that  such  dele- 
gate's expenses  would  be  paid  by  the  aforementioned 
unemployed!  The  proposed  delegate  was  not  elected. 

140 


THE    PARIS   INTERNATIONAL    CONGRESS 

Mr.  Racovsky,  representing  Roumania,  introduced 
resolutions,  which  were  adopted,  condemning  the  pres- 
ent regime  in  Turkey,  the  new  constitution  com- 
pletely refusing  to  give  the  right  of  association  to 
the  wage  workers.  The  international  syndicate  for 
furnishing  "strike-breakers"  was  discussed,  and,  be- 
sides the  rubs  on  this  score  that  England  received, 
the  assertion  was  made  by  Mr.  Jouhaux  that  a  sort 
of  German  central  labor  union  existed  in  Paris,  the 
members  of  which  refused  to  enter  into  the  French 
unions.  An  assistant  secretaryship,  with  a  small 
salary,  was  established  for  the  Secretariat,  as  the  work 
of  secretary  had  been  previously  done  by  Mr.  Legien 
in  odd  hours.  The  total  income  for  the  last  year 
had  been  8709  marks  (less  than  $2200).  The  secre- 
tary of  the  Swedish  unions  sent  a  letter  regretting 
his  absence,  caused  by  the  general  strike  in  his  coun- 
try. Mr.  Legien  brought  to  the  attention  of  the 
Conference  the  acts  of  the  Prussian  Government  with 
regard  to  "cards  of  legit  imitation"  for  foreign  wage 
workers.  At  the  Prussian  frontier  an  incoming* 
working-man  is  obliged  to  pay  $1.30  for  the  right  of 
entering  and  60  cents  for  an  identification  card,  which 
he  must  exhibit  on  demand  of  the  authorities  or  his 
employer.  If  his  card  does  not  show  his  character 
as  an  employe  to  be  satisfactory,  he  may  be  sent 
back  to  his  own  country.  Mr.  Legien  said  that  non- 
unionism  was  promoted  by  these  measures,  and  he 
thought  that  the  ministers  of  the  governments  con- 
cerned should  be  asked  to  protest  to  Prussia.  Mr. 
Bergmans,  of  Belgium,  proposed  that  the  Inter- 
Mi 


LABOR    IN    EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

national  Secretary  of  the  Conference  co-operate  in 
the  matter  with  the  bureau  of  the  International 
Parliamentary  Socialists.  The  French  delegates  ob- 
jected; they  preferred  to  exert  "an  exterior  pressure" 
on  parliaments.  Mr.  Yvetot  drew  the  attention  of 
the  delegates  to  the  fact  that  the  threat  of  a  strike 
by  the  Welsh  miners  had  been  necessary  two  months 
ago  to  bring  into  effect  the  British  eight-hour  mine 
law  in  their  district,  and  that  the  laws  affecting  the 
intelligence  offices  of  France  were  a  nullity  until  the 
unions  enforced  them.  Mr.  Appleton's  motion  that 
the  unions  in  the  various  countries  represented  should 
combat  the  Prussian  regulations  in  question  "by  all 
means  in  their  power"  was  adopted.  Mr.  Madsen, 
of  Denmark,  notified  the  Conference  that  the  working- 
people  of  his  country  intended  to  enter  upon  a  strug- 
gle for  the  eight-hour  day,  and  asked  for  material 
support.  Mr.  Huysmans  moved  that  work  done  in 
homes  should  be  subjected  to  the  same  legislation  as 
factory  work.  Agreed  to.  Mr.  Jouhaux  called  the 
attention  of  the  Conference  to  attacks  made  by  the 
secretaries  of  the  Holland  and  Spain  central  unions 
on  the  Anarchists  of  those  countries,  and  asked  that 
they  be  requested  to  abstain  from  such  personalities 
and  political  controversies.  A  warm  discussion  en- 
sued, the  Socialists  and  their  opponents  charging 
each  other  with  introducing  politics  in  the  Conference, 
and  consequently  sowing  the  seeds  of  dissension. 
"The  French,"  said  Mr.  Legien,  "declare  themselves 
adversaries  of  politics  in  the  union  as  against  the 
Socialists;  but  when  it  is  a  matter  of  Anarchist 

142 


THE    PARIS    INTERNATIONAL    CONGRESS 

politics,  their  zeal  for  the  neutrality  of  the  unions 
vanishes."  A  proposition  in  favor  of  Esperanto  was 
accepted;  not  obligatory.  Budapest  was  chosen  as 
the  place  for  holding  the  next  Conference  some  time 
in  1911. 

In  thus  summarizing  the  three  days'  proceedings 
of  this  Conference,  I  have  felt — at  moments  almost 
with  sufficient  force  to  cause  me  to  dismiss  the  whole 
subject  in  a  brief  paragraph  —  that  my  American 
readers  as  a  body  could  hardly  be  expected  to  follow 
all  the  points  as  narrated.  And  yet  all  who  are 
acquainted  with  our  American  labor  movement — our 
own,  our  advanced,  our  national,  more,  our  conti- 
nental, movement — will  see,  at  every  point  touched 
upon,  comparisons  favorable  to  America,  both  as  a 
land  in  which  the  workers  are  free  from  many  burdens 
that  still  rest  heavily  upon  European  labor  and  as  a 
land  in  which  the  organized  labor  movement  is  in 
a  better  position  to  help  all  classes  of  society  than  is 
the  case  in  any  country  in  any  other  part  of  the 
world. 


AT  THE  BRITISH   TRADE-UNION  CONGRESS  AT 
IPSWICH 

IPSWICH,  England,  September  n,  1909. 

THE  purpose  of  the  annual  British  Trade  -  Union  J 
Congress  is  to  decide  upon  the  labor  measures  its  Par- 
liamentary Committee  shall  recommend  to  the  na- 
tional lawmakers.  Many  of  the  subjects  discussed 
at  the  conventions  of  the  American  Federation  of 
Labor — trade  jurisdictions,  boycotts,  lockouts,  strikes, 
dealings  between  particular  unions  and  employers — 
do  not  come  up  for  consideration  in  the  Congress, 
and  consequently  the  number  of  resolutions  presented 
are  hardly  half  as  many  as  are  introduced  in  the 
annual  American  Federation  of  Labor  conventions. 
The  place  of  holding  the  Congress  changes  from  year 
to  year,  in  order  to  impart  to  all  parts  of  the  country 
successively  the  quickening  impulse  that  comes  to 
a  locality  with  the  publicity  and  interest  connected 
with  the  event.  Ipswich,  with  66,000  inhabitants, 
not  a  very  lively  town  even  from  the  English  point 
of  view,  was  chosen  for  this  year's  Congress  for  the 
reason  that  no  such  meeting  had  been  held  in  Central 
East  England  since  1894,  when  one  took  place  at 
Norwich.  The  meeting  began  Monday  and  closed 
Saturday. 

144 


AT  THE  CONGRESS  AT  IPSWICH 

Present  at  the  Public  Hall  sessions  this  week  in 
Ipswich  were  495  delegates,  representing  unions  with 
a  membership  of  1,701,000.  Chairman  D.  J.  Shack- 
leton,  of  the  Parliamentary  Committee,  acting  as 
President  of  the  Congress,  mentioned  that  among  the 
delegates  w^ere  33  Members  of  Parliament,  26  Justices 
of  the  Peace,  i  Mayor,  6  Aldermen,  and  18  Coun- 
cillors. The  number  of  different  unions  represented 
was  195,  most  of  them  having  but  i  delegate,  but 
at  the  other  extreme  was  the  Miners'  Federation  with 
117  and  the  Weavers  with  49.  There  were  4 
women  delegates.  Fraternal  delegates  were  also 
present  from  the  Labor  Party  (J.  Keir  Hardie),  the 
Co-operative  Union,  the  Board  of  Trade,  the  General 
Federation  of  Trade  Unions,  and  the  American  Federa- 
tion of  Labor  (B.  A.  Larger  and  John  P.  Frey,  with 
Samuel  Gompers  as  a  special  representative  this 
year). 

The  resolutions  to  be  voted  on  at  the  Congress, 
with  their  amendments,  must  be  in  the  hands  of  the 
Parliamentary  Committee  a  stated  time  previous  to 
the  date  of  the  meeting.  Being  then  printed  in  the 
agenda,  they  are  published  a  sufficient  time  before 
the  week  of  the  debates  on  them  to  permit  each 
delegate  and  his  constituents  to  know  wrhat  is  await- 
ing the  expression  of  the  general  will.  The  resolu- 
tions, which  are  not  referred  to  committees  at  the 
Congress,  are  usually  of  a  type  familiar  to  all  who  are 
in  the  trade-union  movement.  Some,  like  that  on 
compulsory  arbitration,  brought  up  year  after  year 
by  their  champions,  are  sure  to  meet  certain  defeat. 
10  I45 


LABOR   IN    EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

Others,  like  that  on  secular  education,  encountering 
strenuous  opposition  from  denominational  sources, 
are  adopted  by  large  majorities.  As  in  many  other 
deliberative  bodies,  the  debate  is  carried  on  by  a  com- 
paratively small  body  of  recognized  spokesmen  for 
the  various  elements  present.  This  year  the  open- 
ing session,  Monday,  was  taken  up  with  preliminary 
formalities,  and  Saturday  with  resolutions  of  courtesy ; 
hence,  the  real  business  was  gone  over  in  four  days, 
a  five-minute  limit  speech  rule  being  passed  the  third 
day. 

The  drift  of  British  trade-union  effort  is  to  be  seen 
in  the  decisions  on  certain  of  the  resolutions.  The 
longest  debate  on  Tuesday  was  on  a  motion  embody- 
ing an  "emphatic  condemnation  of  any  indirect  or 
direct  compulsory  enlistment  of  the  working-classes 
into  the  Territorial  forces,"  and  also  condemning  "the 
regulations  which  permit  these  forces  to  be  used  in 
suppressing  trade  disputes."  This  was  passed,  but 
an  amendment  calling  for  "a  citizen  army  free  from 
military  law  in  times  of  peace" — the  German  Social- 
ists' conception  of  a  military  organization  as  a  sub- 
stitute for  the  standing  army  —  was  rejected,  933,000 
votes  to  102,000.  A  resolution  calling  upon  the 
Government  to  appoint  a  Minister  of  Labor  with 
full  cabinet  rank  was  passed.  A  resolution  to  estab- 
lish a  Labor  daily  newspaper  in  London,  for  which 
$750,000  would  be  needed,  was  voted  down.  A 
resolution  was  passed  calling  upon  the  organized 
workers  "to  fall  into  line  with  their  comrades  of  other 
countries  to  demonstrate  on  Labor  Day,  in  order  to 

146 


AT    THE    CONGRESS    AT    IPSWICH 

demand  the  institution  of  a  legal  eight-hour  day  and 
to  maintain  the  interests  of  the  working-class  gen- 
erally in  the  cause  of  universal  peace  by  the  sus- 
pension of  work  on  May  i."  Prison  commissioners^ 
were  denounced  for  "  putting  the  work  of  prisoners 
on  the  open  market  in  direct  competition  with  the 
work  of  law-abiding  citizens."  The  Government  was 
asked  to  prevent  the  exportation  of  " blacklegs"  to 
foreign  countries  in  time  of  industrial  disputes.  The 
label  of  the  Amalgamated  Society  of  Tailors  and 
Tailoresses  was  indorsed.  As  heretofore  only  the 
British  hatmakers  have  had  a  label,  this  move  may  / 
mean  the  promotion  of  the  trade-union  label  in  the' 
kingdom  on  a  large  scale.  The  neglect  of  this 
weapon  in  Great  Britain  by  the  trade  unionists  has  for 
years  been  commented  upon  by  American  unionists. 
The  Government's  scheme  for  labor  exchanges  and 
the  proposition  for  insurance  against  unemployment 
were  approved.  The  Government  was  appealed  to 
in  the  matter  of  evictions  by  landlord  employers 
during  labor  disputes.  A  measure  was  proposed  by 
which  the  Government  should  "  consider  the  propriety 
of  making  'grants-in-aid'  to  trade  organizations  sup- 
porting their  members  during  periods  of  slackness 
by  the  payment  of  out-of-work  benefits."  This  was 
rejected  by  a  small  majority,  the  principal  argument 
against  it  being  that  the  scheme  would  hamper  trade- 
union  activities,  and  could  not  be  dovetailed  into 
union  administration.  The  Congress  strongly  con- 
demned ''the  provisions  of  the  American  copyright 
acts  whereby  copyright  is  refused  to  any  British 


LABOR    IN    EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

publication  unless  the  type  is  actually  set  up  and  the 
whole  of  the  plates  are  produced  in  America,"  thereby 
"crippling  the  printing  and  paper  industry"  of  Great 
Britain.  The  Government  was  asked  to  reduce  the 
old  age  pension  limit  to  60  years,  with  the  abolition  of 
disqualifications  contained  in  the  present  act.  The 
confiscation  of  copies  of  Justice,  a  Socialist  paper, 
at  the  recent  anti-Czar  demonstration  at  Trafalgar 
Square,  was  protested  against,  and  also  the  prohibition 
of  circulating  the  paper  in  India.  These  acts  were 
regarded  as  "an  attack  on  the  freedom  of  the  Press 
more  characteristic  of  Russian  despotism  than  the 
government  of  a  professedly  democratic  country."  A 
resolution  which  was  accepted  demanding  "electoral 
reform"  contained  these  among  other  items:  "The 
payment  of  Members  of  Parliament  by  the  State ;  the 
holding  of  all  general  elections  on  one  and  the  same 
day;  a  more  equitable  distribution  of  seats;  the 
abolition  of  plural  voting  and  university  representa- 
tion ;  the  extension  of  the  franchise  to  all  adults,  male 
and  female."  Proportional  representation  was  voted 
down  by  a  large  majority.  Several  resolutions  on 
industrial  insurance,  which  were  passed,  brought  out 
a  forcible  presentation  of  the  evils  of  the  system  as 
operated  in  England.  One  of  the  resolutions  read: 
"Having  regard  to  the  serious  nature  of  the  illegal 
practices  connected  with  industrial  insurance,  which 
have  led  to  widespread  gambling  in  human  lives,  this 
Congress  calls  upon  his  Majesty's  Government  to  in- 
stitute an  inquiry  by  means  of  a  royal  commission, 
or  a  committee,  with  a  view  to  legislation  to  prohibit 

148 


AT    THE    CONGRESS    AT    IPSWICH 

such  illegal  practices."  The  resolution  favoring  com- 
pulsory arbitration,  which  was  lost  by  an  overwhelm- 
ing majority,  began:  "That  this  Congress,  recognizing 
the  futility  and  wastefulness  of  the  strike  as  a  means 
of  settling  trade  disputes,  hereby  affirms  the  principle 
of  conciliation  and  arbitration  in  all  such  disputes,  and 
is  of  the  opinion  that  the  time  has  arrived  in  the 
direction  of  conferring  compulsory  powers  on  the 
Board  of  Trade  to  inquire  into  any  industrial  disputes 
when  requested  by  either  party.  Pending  such  in- 
quiry and  report,  no  strike  or  lockout  shall  take  place." 
The  present  Government's  budget  land  clauses  were 
approved  as  "being  in  harmony  with  the  expressed 
policy  of  former  congresses  and  in  accord  with  the 
just  claims  of  labor  for  the  taxation  of  unearned 
increment  and  land  monopoly  and  placing  the  burden 
according  to  the  ability  to  pay."  A  resolution  sup- 
porting the  eight-hour  day  was  mingled  in  the  debate 
with  one  "recognizing  that  unemployment  is  now  per- 
manent in  character,  in  busy  as  in  slack  seasons,  in 
summer  and  in  winter,  and  is  common  to  all  trades 
and  industries,  consequent  upon  industry  being  car- 
ried on  for  private  profit,"  etc. 

Flash-light  glimpses  of  the  condition  of  labor  in 
Great  Britain  in  1909  may  be  caught  in  reading  state- 
ments made  by  delegates  at  the  Congress,  usually  in 
the  course  of  speeches  on  measures  affecting  their 
own  occupations.  The  President  of  the  Congress, 
referring  in  his  annual  address  to  the  Government's 
land-tax  item  in  the  budget,  wrote:  "The  cry  of  the 
landlords — that  in  order  to  live  their  lives  of  pleasure 

149 


LABOR    IN    EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

and  luxury  it  will  be  necessary  for  them  to  curtail 
their  expenditure  on  charitable  objects — is  one  which 
needs  only  to  be  stated  to  be  resented  by  the  people 
of  this  country."  C.  W.  Bowerman,  M.P.,  of  the 
printing  trades,  said:  "  A  return  issued  by  the  Board  of 
Trade  not  long  ago  gave  statistics  regarding  the  bene- 
fits paid  by  one  hundred  of  the  large  trade  unions  for 
the  past  ten  years,  and  showed  that  the  accumulated 
expenditure  for  unemployed,  superannuation,  death, 
emigration  benefits,  and  so  on,  came  to  a  little  under 
ten  million  pounds"  ($50,000,000).  A.  J.  Walkden, 
of  the  Railway  Clerks'  Association,  represented  rail- 
way clerks  as  working  in  "unhealthy  holes."  "The 
worst  places  were  in  the  goods  (freight)  departments, 
where  night  clerks  had  to  work  in  places  which  had 
been  occupied  by  a  staff  of  day  clerks.  Most  of  the 
so-called  offices  were  badly  ventilated  and  artificially 
lighted,  even  in  the  daytime."  Station  masters  and 
clerks  worked  Sundays  without  payment  or  equivalent 
time  off.  George  Lansbury,  of  the  London  Unem- 
ployed Committee,  at  a  public  meeting,  stated: 
"There  is  work  for  15,000  men  at  the  port  of  London, 
but  there  are  no  less  than  25,000  competing  for  the 
positions."  H.  H.  Elvin,  of  the  Clerks'  National 
Union,  gave  details  of  a  "public  office  twenty-five 
yards  square  in  which  there  were  twenty-five  clerks, 
male  and  female,  constantly  employed,  a  day  and  a 
night  staff,  so  that  the  office  was  never  empty,  that  it 
might  be  sweetened  by  fresh  air.  The  ventilation  was 
bad,  and  the  only  windows  looked  onto  a  passage." 
R.  Smillie,  M.P.,  Miners'  Federation,  speaking  on 

150 


AT    THE    CONGRESS    AT    IPSWICH 

evictions,  told  of  seeing  ''seven  hundred  families  of 
miners  turned  out  on  the  wayside  in  the  depth  of  win- 
ter." At  Hensworth  an  employer  owning  one  hundred 
houses  bought  of  another  owner  one  hundred  more, 
and  then  obtaining  an  eviction  order,  "turned  all  the 
people  out."  J.  Hallsworth,  Co-operative  Employees, 
asking  that  co-operative  societies  should  always  pay 
the  union  scale,  said:  "There  are  societies  with  trade 
unionists  on  the  board  employing  girls  of  eighteen  or 
nineteen  years  of  age  at  25.  6d.  (62  cents)  and  45.  6d. 
(Si.io)  a  week  of  sixty -five  hours."  W.  J.  Da  vies, 
supporting  a  resolution  calling  for  electoral  registry 
reform,  remarked:  "Last  December  I  left  London  to 
take  up  permanent  residence  in  Nottingham,  and  I 
shall  have  to  wait  until  July  of  next  year  before  I 
shall  be  qualified  "  (as  a  voter).  W.  F.  Dawtry,  Gen- 
eral Secretary  of  the  Steam-Engine  Makers'  Society 
(13,000  members,  with  a  bank  balance  of  $425,000),  at 
a  dinner  spoke  of  preferring  "that  a  trade-union  con- 
gress should  deal  more  with  direct  trade-union  ques- 
tions." To  his  mind  "there  was  a  tendency  for  a  sort 
of  rivalry  between  trade  unionism  and  politicians." 
One  like  himself  hardly  knew  which  side  to  take.  H. 
Smith,  Barnsley  miners,  supporting  better  mine  regula- 
tions, said:  "In  1908  fatal  accidents  in  mines  (in  Great 
Britain)  caused  1,308  deaths,  while  non-fatal  accidents 
kept  141,851  men  incapacitated  more  than  seven 
days."  W.  Ross,  Paper -Mill  Workers,  stated  that 
for  the  quarter  of  a  million  factories  and  workshops 
there  were  only  two  hundred  Government  inspectors. 
Councillor  Webster,  Bleachers,  said  that  some  dye- 


LABOR    IN    EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

works  had  not  received  visits  from  inspectors  for 
twenty  years.  S.  March,  London  Carmen's  Union, 
advocating  licensing  all  carmen  in  London,  quoted 
street  accident  statistics.  "In  1891  accidents  in  the 
streets  of  London  were  5,500,  but  with  the  introduc- 
tion of  motor  traffic  they  rose  to  11,800  in  1905,  to 
14,000  in  1906,  and  to  17,000  in  1908.  It  is  surprising 
that  the  public  has  not  protested  against  the  excessive 
speed  with  which  motor  vehicles  are  driven  and  the 
incompetency  of  motor-drivers." 

Mr.  George  Edwards,  the  Norfolk  Agricultural 
Laborers'  delegate,  made  known  to  the  Congress  some 
of  the  possibilities  arising  from  the  new  labor  organiza- 
tion that  was  spreading  among  his  class.  Although 
it  had  been  begun  only  in  1907,  there  were  already 
one  hundred  and  fifty  branches  with  seven  thousand 
members.  He  said  that  the  delegates  coming  from 
the  large  centers  of  industry  had  no  idea  of  the 
seriousness  of  the  questions  bearing  on  employment, 
and  especially  eviction,  from  the  standpoint  of  the 
agricultural  laborers.  A  town  worker  when  evicted 
might  find  a  shelter  in  the  next  street,  but  a  farm 
laborer  could  not  get  one  in  the  same  village  nor  in 
any  of  half  a  dozen  near  him.  From  a  form  of  agree- 
ment in  his  hand  he  read  the  terms  to  which  a  laborer 
he  represented  had  had  to  submit.  By  these  the  man 
agreed  to  give  up  his  cottage  at  a  week's  notice;  not 
to  keep  pigs  or  fowls  without  the  landlord's  permis- 
sion; to  act  as  night  watchman  when  required;  to 
inform  on  "poachers";  not  to  harbor  any  one  of  his 
family  "who  might  misconduct  themselves  in  any 


AT    THE    CONGRESS    AT    IPSWICH 

way";  not  to  remove  certain  of  his  utensils  until  his 
landlord  or  the  agent  refused  to  purchase  them;  to 
4 'undertake  to  live  at  peace  with  his  neighbors,  and  to 
lead  an  honest  and  respectable  life";  to  obtain  per- 
mission of  the  landlord  or  agent  before  admitting  to 
his  home  any  of  his  family,  "giving  particulars  on  a 
form  provided  by  the  landlord,  their  names  and  ages, 
and  also  if  married  or  single,  and  how  long  they  want 
to  stay."  Laborers  who  lived  under  such  conditions 
as  he  described  could  neither  make  application  for 
an  allotment  of  land  under  the  Acts  of  Parliament  nor 
serve  on  local  boards.  If  they  tried  to  do  such  things, 
they  were  marked  men  and  turned  out  of  their 
cottages.  Mr.  Edwards  said  his  organization  had 
been  encouraged  by  an  increase  of  one  shilling  a  week 
in  consequence  of  its  efforts.  Wages  usually  were 
twelve  shillings  ($3)  a  week.  His  union's  dues  were 
twopence  (4  cents)  a  week.  Mr.  Edwards  is  an  in- 
teresting personality.  Born  in  1850,  he  has  been  at 
work  as  a  laborer  all  his  life  since  six  years  of  age; 
he  never  attended  a  school ;  once  worked  with  Joseph 
Arch ;  is  a  member  of  the  County  Council  of  Norfolk. 
In  the  course  of  the  week  at  Ipswich  a  number  of 
organizations  associated  to  a  greater  or  less  extent 
with  the  British  labor  movement  took  the  occasion 
to  hold  reunions  or  propagandist  meetings.  Two 
mass  -  meetings  were  held  in  the  Hippodrome  on 
Sunday,  the  first  in  the  afternoon  by  the  Independent 
Labor  Party,  which  was  attended  by  nineteen  hundred 
persons,  according  to  the  local  press,  and  the  second 
in  the  evening  by  the  National  Union  of  Gasworkers 


LABOR   IN    EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

and  General  Laborers,  when  the  audience  numbered 
sixteen  hundred.  At  the  afternoon  meeting  the 
speeches,  purely  socialistic  in  character,  were  made 
by  Keir  Hardie,  George  H.  Roberts,  and  Fred 
Henderson.  Mr.  Roberts,  who  is  the  parliamentary 
whip  of  the  Labor  party,  said  he  was  "visiting 
Ipswich  in  the  dual  capacity  of  a  trade-union  official 
and  a  'rank-and-filer'  of  the  Labor  party."  He  said: 
"The  total  number  of  wage  workers  eligible  to  be- 
come members  of  trade  unions  is  about  fourteen 
million  in  Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  and  out  of  that 
number  some  three  million  belong  to  trade  unions. 
Not  within  the  recollection  of  any  one  present  have 
we  seen  such  crowded  years  of  labor  and  socialistic 
legislation  as  the  past  three  or  four  have  been.  There 
are  thirty-four  Labor  members  in  the  House  of 
Commons  to-day,  but  as  sure  as  I  speak  to  you  there 
will  be  sixty-five  to  seventy-five  in  the  next  House  of 
Commons."  At  the  evening  meeting  the  salient  feat- 
ure was  the  Countess  of  Warwick  presiding.  On  the 
Saturday  previous  new  headquarters  were  opened  in 
Ipswich  by  the  local  branch  of  the  Labor  party ;  two 
meetings  were  held,  that  of  the  evening  being  addressed 
by  three  M.P.'s  attending  the  Congress  as  trade  union- 
ists— Pete  Curran,  J.  Seddon,  and  G.  H.  Roberts. 

In  the  churches  of  Ipswich  on  Sunday  sermons 
were  delivered  having  reference  to  the  Congress. 
Rev.  John  Gleeson,  speaking  in  St.  Nicholas  Con- 
gregational Church,  welcoming  the  delegates,  said: 
"There  has  been  a  great  departure  of  the  masses  of 
the  people  of  this  country  from  the  organized  churches 


AT    THE    CONGRESS    AT    IPSWICH 

of  Christendom.  In  London,  out  of  a  population  of 
seven  millions,  nearly  six  millions  seldom  attend  a 
place  of  worship,  and  it  is  much  the  same  in  other 
towns.  Various  causes  had  been  assigned  for  this 
—religious  indifference,  unbelief,  the  physical  and 
mental  exhaustion  of  the  multitudes,  pew  rents, 
snobbery  in  the  churches,  and  the  idea  that  the 
churches  represented  the  classes." 

On  Wednesday  evening  the  large  hall  of  the  Co- 
operative Society's  building  was  crowded  on  the 
occasion  of  a  meeting  of  the  Social  Democratic 
party.  The  principal  speaker  was  the  old  -  time 
Socialist,  H.  M.  Hyndman.  Ben  Tillett  made  a 
characteristic  address.  One  of  his  sallies  was  the  old 
reference  to  "those  who  go  to  chapel  or  church  to 
pray  for  the  working-girls  on  Sunday  and  prey  upon 
them  the  rest  of  the  week."  Some  of  Mr.  Hyndman's 
points,  as  reported,  were :  "For  two  whole  generations 
trade  unionists  looked  at  wages  and  nothing  else,  and 
the  consequence  was  they  stood  in  the  way  of  prog- 
ress." "The  unemployed  question  went  to  the  very 
root  of  modern  society.  It  could  not  be  cured  by 
mere  tinkering;  but  only  by  recognizing  that  the 
workers  were  under  such  conditions  that  they  were 
forced  to  band  themselves  together  in  order  to  make 
a  clean  sweep  of  a  system  which  was  rotten  to  the 
core."  "In  the  matter  of  poverty,  excepting  India 
— which  we  were  robbing,  thieving,  and  ruining — 
there  was  more  squalor,  misery,  and  horror  in  pro- 
portion to  our  population  in  this  country  than  any 
other  in  the  world" — and  he  knew  it  "pretty  well." 


LABOR   IN    EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

"The  President  of  the  Trade-Union  Congress  had 
spoken  of  the  budget  as  the  most  glorious  budget  ever 
brought  in  in  the  history  of  finance.  Well,  he  could 
not  see  anything  in  it  benefiting  the  working-classes." 
"As  to  the  proposal  to  tax  land  values,  ...  it  would 
simply  strengthen  the  capitalist  class,  which  was  their 
worst  enemy,  for  the  landlord  was  only  the  sleeping 
partner  in  the  plunder."  In  conclusion,  he  prophesied 
"that  the  ultimate  victory  of  the  party  to  which  he 
belonged  was  as  certain  as  the  fixture  of  an  eclipse 
or  the  return  of  a  comet." 

Neither  Mr.  Hyndman,  nor  Mr.  Hardie,  nor  Mr. 
John  Turner  (our  Ellis  Island  "Anarchist"),  nor  any 
of  the  extremist  or  moderate  M.P.'s  present,  would 
find  it  an  easy  matter  to  explain  to  an  outside  bar- 
barian how  it  is  that  so  many  shades  of  Socialism,  and 
so  many  factions  supporting  them,  exist  among  the 
self-styled  Socialists,  all  of  whom  are  so  scientifically 
certain  of  their  own  particular  future  social  state. 
If  they  could  only  agree  now! 

Other  side  meetings  were  held  in  various  halls  of  the 
town  or  in  the  public  squares — by  the  Women's  Trade 
Union  League,  which  now  claims  a  membership  of 
200,000;  by  the  Catholic  Federation,  to  protest 
against  a  resolution  submitted  to  the  Congress  by  the 
Gas  workers,  calling  for  "a  national  system  of  education 
under  full  popular  control,  free  and  secular,  from  the 
primary  school  to  the  university";  by  the  railway 
men,  at  which  Secretary  Richard  Bell  said  there  were 
only  eleven  members  of  the  union  in  Ipswich;  by 
the  Shop  Assistants'  Union,  a  delegate  conference  at 

156 


AT   THE    CONGRESS    AT    IPSWICH 

which  nine  branches  with  a  membership  of  500  were 
represented-  by  the  Brassworkers  and  Metal  Mechan- 
ics, to  try  to  establish  a  local  branch;  by  officials  of 
the  Amalgamated  Union  of  Co-operative  Employees, 
which  has  a  membership  of  27,000,  with  620  branches 
and  a  reserve  fund  of  $175,000;  by  the  supporters  of 
Ruskin  College,  Oxford,  known  as  the  Workmen's 
University,  at  which  there  has  been  a  strike  of  students 
during  the  last  year  that  threatens  serious  damage  to 
the  institution.  / 

Various  meetings  such  as  these  brought  audi-^ 
ences  to  the  local  Trade  Union,  Co-operative,  Social 
Settlement,  and  other  halls  daily.  Congress  week,  it 
is  thus  seen,  signifies  not  only  the  business  of  discuss- 
ing prospective  labor  laws,  but  the  interchange  of 
views  and  sentiments  by  many  groups  of  people 
entertaining  all  sorts  of  opinions  on  labor  and  reform 
subjects.  To  these  lesser  gatherings  the  local  news- 
papers give  columns  of  reports,  while  to  the  Congress/ 
they  allot  pages.  The  Press  throughout  the  kingdom* 
devotes  much  space  to  Trade-Union  Congress  events. 
The  occasion  affords  a  stirring-up  of  ideas,  not  only 
among  the  five  hundred  and  odd  delegates  and  visitors, 
but  among  the  editors  and  public  men  of  the  entire 
country.  The  direction  to  be  taken  in  national  affairs 
by  a  large  mass  of  the  working-class  is  determined  by 
the  resolutions  passed  or  rejected  by  the  delegates. 

The  deliberations  at  the  Congress  usually  move  in 
a  decorous  groove.  The  veterans  mostly  have  the 
floor.  Rarely  personal  in  their  remarks,  they  are 
otherwise  guarded  in  their  speech.  It  was  an  astound- 


LABOR   IN    EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

ing  thing  to  happen  when  Ben  Tillett  called  out, 
when  a  Cabinet  Minister  was  mentioned:  "Oh,  he  is 
a  liar!"  And  when  checked  by  the  chairman,  he 
shouted:  "All  ministers  are  liars!" 

An  event  of  a  social  character  which  took  place  on 
Monday  afternoon,  at  the  close  of  the  opening  session 
of  the  Congress,  rather  tended  to  confuse  the  American 
observer,  who  had  been  somewhat  impressed  by  the 
Socialist  demonstrations  with  the  idea  that  only  an 
uncompromising  attitude  toward  "the  exploiters" 
was  to  be  expected  from  the  delegates.  The  affair 
was  thus  referred  to  in  an  editorial  by  the  East 
Anglican  Times:  "Congress  rose  for  the  day  a  few 
minutes  later,  and  a  thousand  persons  attended  a 
garden-party  in  Christ  Church  Park  given  by  the 
Mayor,  the  local  members  of  Parliament,  and  the 
local  Trades  and  Labor  Council.  Local  employers  of 
labor,  the  managing  directors  of  great  local  firms, 
the  Ransomes,  the  Turners,  the  Catchpoles,  the 
Pretty s,  the  directing  officials  of  the  Great  Eastern 
Company,  had  accepted  invitations,  and  rubbed 
shoulders  with  the  representatives  of  Labor."  The 
same  newspaper  gave  in  its  local  columns  a  detailed 
description  of  this  function.  Another  reception,  given 
on  Wednesday  afternoon  and  evening  at  their  residence 
in  Oak  Hill  Park  by  Sir  Daniel  and  Lady  Goddard, 
was  attended,  "on  the  actual  count"  of  a  local  re- 
porter, "by  nine  hundred  and  eighty-nine  persons." 
"It  was  quite  evident  that  there  was  a  very  general 
feeling  of  appreciation  of  the  kindness  of  Sir  Daniel," 
wrote  the  reporter,  "in  entertaining  such  a  number 

158 


AT    T.HE    CONGRESS    AT    IPSWICH 

of  perfect  strangers  in  so  hospitable  a  fashion."  "In 
addition  to  the  delegates  and  their  wives,  all  the 
members  of  the  Ipswich  Town  Council  were  invited, 
and  many  personal  friends  of  Sir  Daniel  and  Lady 
Goddard  were  also  present."  To  the  American  mm 
a  natural  query  arises  as  to  the  significance  of  such 
social  receptions.  Are  they  merely  political  bids  for 
working-class  support — the  bare  suspicion  is  dis- 
quieting— or  are  they  genuine  testimony  of  an  inclina- 
tion on  the  part  of  some  of  the  "trustees  of  wealth" 
to  take  upon  themselves  the  public  duty  of  establish- 
ing the  best  relations  possible  between  employers  and 
employed?  If  the  latter  is  the  case,  there  ought  to 
be  some  way  of  systematically  bringing  together  all 
the  elements  of  Great  Britain  so  interested,  irrespec- 
tive of  political,  social  or  religious  standing.  A  long 
and  somewhat  heated  debate  took  place  on  Thursday 
on  a  resolution  that  "invitations  to  social  functions  not 
promoted  and  organized  by  a  Trades  Council  or  other 
kindred  body  shall  not  be  accepted  on  behalf  of  dele- 
gates to  the  Congress."  It  gave  opportunity  for  some 
railing  against  the  rich  and  their  toadies,  but  it  was 
rejected — 338,000  votes  in  favor,  1,192,000  opposed. 

Sheffield  was  selected  as  the  place  for  holding  the 
Congress  in  1910. 

The  general  intelligence  and  sincerity  of  the  dele- 
gates to  the  Congress  is  beyond  cavil.  Time  will  more 
clearly  demonstrate  whether  the  British  or  the  Ameri- 
can organized  labor  movement  is  the  more  perfectly 
adapted  to  secure  the  rights  and  the  justice  to  which 
the  workers  are  entitled  and  by  which  real  liberty 
shall  be  maintained. 


•*•» 

y/ 
V 


THE  AWAKENING  IN  ITALY 


ROME,  September  20,  1909. 

IN  the  week  just  passed  I  have  rapidly  travelled 
from  Ipswich  and  London,  where  the  clouds,  rain, 
and  chill  of  the  English  climate  prevail,  to  Milan  and 
Rome,  where  to-day  are  transparent  air  and  glorious 
sunshine.  In  both  England  and  Italy  my  association 
has  been,  of  course,  with  people  interested  in  the  prob- 
lems relating  to  the  wage-  working  class.  In  London, 
on  Sunday,  a  week  ago  yesterday,  the  day  following 
the  close  of  the  British  Trade-Union  Congress,  I  ad- 
dressed a  large  audience  brought  together  in  Browning 
Hall,  Suffolk,  by  the  Pleasant  Sunday  Afternoon  Soci- 
ety (the  "P.  S.  A."),  under  the  guidance  of  Mr.  Ed- 
ward Stead  —  a  very  sympathetic  audience,  but  quiet 
and  reserved,  which  had  assembled  to  hear  my  mes- 
sage on  "  Labor,"  with  especial  reference  to  the  British 
Trade-Union  Congress,  then  just  closed.  In  Rome, 
yesterday,  Sunday  again,  I  had  three  audiences,  each 
of  them  lively,  demonstrative,  only  short  of  turbulent, 
every  member  apparently  bent  on  testifying  in  some 
form  to  his  individual  opinion  of  the  proceedings. 
But  both  in  England  and  Italy  was  shown  by  unmis- 
takable evidence  the  world-wide  interest  now  taken 
in  the  labor  question,  the  labor  movement  —  the 
problem  of  the  day. 

1  60 


THE    AWAKENING    IN    ITALY 

Leaving  London  early  Tuesday  morning,  I  reached 
Paris  in  the  evening,  took  the  night  train  via  the 
Basel  and  Saint  Gothard  route,  and  arrived  in  Milan 
at  three  o'clock  on  Wednesday  afternoon.  On  Satur- 
day morning,  in  the  small  hours,  after  another  night  of 
uncomfortable  railway  travel,  I  reached  Rome.  At 
ten  o'clock  a  committee  awaited  me  in  the  hotel 
sitting-room;  in  the  course  of  the  day  I  was  called 
upon  to  keep  seven  appointments,  and  without  an 
hour's  rest  yesterday  I  was  hurried  from  point  to 
point  to  take  part  in  interviews,  meetings,  and  hos- 
pitable functions.  As  I  had  been  carried  about  in  a 
closed  carriage  owing  to  rain,  after  thirty-six  hours 
I  had  seen  so  little  of  Rome's  streets  and  sights  that 
in  this  respect  I  might  as  well  have  been  in  Kalamazoo 
or  Hoboken.  What  I  did  see,  however,  was  indeed  of 
importance — gatherings  of  men  of  every  walk  of  life 
manifesting  a  most  lively  interest  not  only  in  the 
American  labor  movement  and  its  relation  to  Italy, 
but  in  American  social  and  industrial  development 
in  general.  And  while  I  wish  to  avoid  equally  an 
appearance  of  vainglory  and  an  assumption  of  false 
modesty,  the  fact  should  be  chronicled  that  as  much 
attention  is  being  given  by  the  Italian  public,  official 
and  private,  to  an  American  labor  representative  as 
could  be  to  any  spokesman  for  an  equal  number  of 
adherents  of  a  cause  in  any  social  rank  whatever. 
The  newspapers — well,  the  enterprising  Press  has 
shown  itself  fully  alive  to  the  occasion.  Columns? 
Yes,  pages! 

But  to  begin  Italy  with  Milan.  What  a  modern 
ii  161 


LABOR    IN    EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

city  it  is,  springing  out  of  the  old!  As  the  railway 
centre  of  rich  northern  Italy  and  the  commercial 
capital  of  the  entire  kingdom,  Milan's  annual  increase 
in  wealth  is  quite  marked,  and  through  organiza- 
tion labor  is  on  hand  claiming  more  and  more  of 
its  share — rightfully.  At  headquarters — the  Labor 
Exchange  —  nearly  one  hundred  unions  are  repre- 
sented. Subdivision  of  industries,  even  to  the  small- 
est possible  distinct  sections,  seems  to  be  the  rule  in 
,  Milan's  organizations.  Whereas,  in  some  European 
Jcities  I  have  visited  a  whole  industry  would  be 
bulked  together — as  the  "metal-workers"  or  the 
"wood-workers" — in  Milan  these  are  separated  into 
their  constituent  parts. 

Four  principal  phases  of  the  labor  movement  are 
presented  to  the  observer's  view  in  Milan — the  trade 
unions,  the  co-operative  societies,  the  Socialist  party, 
J&nd  the  "Umanitaria."  This  last-named  society  has 
no  counterpart,  so  far  as  I  am  aware,  in  any  city  in 
northern  Europe.  If  space  permitted,  I  should  dwell 
upon  the  possibilities  lying  before  this  institution,  as 
well  as  upon  its  accomplishments — upon  the  char- 
acter of  the  great  man  whose  generosity  provided  its 
foundation,  and  upon  its  new  building,  not  entirely 
finished,  in  which  are  to  be  concentrated  the  offices 
of  the  various  officials  of  trade  unions  and  other 
organizations  devoted  to  the  elevation  of  labor. 
According  to  the  statements  of  prominent  union  men 
and  others,  * '  Umanitaria "  has  both  the  means  and 
the  intention  to  recognize  and  help  promote  every 
legitimate  form  of  social  uplifting  force  that  may  be 

162 


THE    AWAKENING    IN   ITALY 

manifested  in  Milan.  It  is  the  " central"  in  which 
all  the  local  avenues  of  new  thought  and  new  deeds 
in  the  process  of  their  accomplishing  converge. 

Only  in  general  terms  can  the  diverse  methods  of 
promoting  the  well-being  of  the  wage  workers  of 
Milan  be  referred  to  in  this  letter;  the  amount  of 
printed  matter  given  me  relating  to  the  subject,  if 
condensed,  would  make  a  volume  which  could 
hardly  fail  to  be  interesting.  But  while  the  trade 
unionists  of  the  city  are  grateful  for  the  assistance 
and  recognition  given  them  by  the  other  forms 
of  organization,  they  have  learned  to  rely  on 
their  unions  as  the  backbone  of  the  general  work-  / 
ing-class  movement.  In  Italy  a  separation  was' 
declared  last  year  by  the  trade  unions  from  all  other 
movements,  including  the  political.  As  in  several 
other  European  countries,  the  necessity  of  discrimi- 
nating between  the  purely  economic  methods  of  the 
unions  and  the  theories  and  methods  of  the  political 
parties  was  acted  upon.  The  unions  henceforth  are 
to  be  trade  unions,  and  not  party  sections;  their 
officials  are  to  be  workers  at  the  trade,  and  not 
''intellectuals";  the  members  are  to  be  governed  in 
union  matters  by  their  own  democratic  decisions, 
and  not  by  votes  of  delegates  at  political  conventions ; 
each  individual  union  member  is  to  be  free  in  his 
religion,  politics,  or  other  activities,  except  where  his 
contract  with  his  union  is  concerned.  In  other  words, 
in  Italy,  as  in  other  great  countries  of  Continental 
Europe,  the  united  wage  workers  are  adopting  the 
well-settled  principles  of  the  American  Federation 

163 


,         LABOR   IN    EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

'of  Labor.  This  necessary  work  is  not  complete,  but 
it  is  proceeding  rapidly  and  effectually. 

Before  leaving  the  subject  of  Milan  labor  organiza- 
tions, I  must  mention  the  Typographical  Union  as 
one  of  their  best  examples.  It  has  fourteen  hundred 
members,  and  there  are  not  more  than  twenty  non- 
union printers  in  the  city.  It  has  a  nine-hour  day, 
with  no  work  Sunday.  In  its  offices,  which  would  do 
credit  to  a  large  business  house,  the  books  are  kept 
for  the  various  forms  of  insurance  of  the  "regional" 
combination  of  printers'  unions — the  north  of  Italy. 
And  while  the  typographical  is  one  of  the  best  unions 
in  management,  it  is  by  no  means  the  only  one  to  be 
classed  as  model.  It  is  simply  used  as  a  convenient 
illustration. 

And  Rome!  Like  many  another  American,  my 
thoughts  have  been  directed  toward  Rome  since  my 
early  youth — the  mighty  Rome  of  the  ancients,  the 
Rome  of  the  popes  and  of  the  renaissance,  the  Rome 
of  Garibaldi  and  his  brother  patriots.  I  have  for 
years  bought  prints  and  photographs  of  Rome's 
works  of  art,  and  I  have  longed  for  the  idle  day  when 
— on  some  long  vacation — I  might  behold  the  orig- 
inals. And  besides  I  have  read  something  of  those 
descriptions  written  by  cab  and  car-window  tourists 
of  the  lazy  populace  of  the  present  Rome,  and  of  its 
dirt  and  its  fevers.  Now  that  I  am  in  Rome  I  am 
also  seeing  and  hearing  about  a  Rome  of  which  I  have 
hitherto  known  but  little.  This  Rome  is  a  live,  active, 
energetic,  new-born  city — a  centre  of  the  most  active 
social  reform.  It  has  a  recently  formed  democracy, 

164 


THE    AWAKENING    IN   ITALY 

overriding  the  old  privileged  castes,  and  a  citizenship 
of  which  industry,  thrift,  independence,  and  audacious 
assertion  of  human  rights  are  prominent  character- 
istics. Such,  at  least,  are  my  impressions  after  the 
tabloided  charges  of  information  that  have  been 
thrust  on  my  attention  from  many  sources  since  my 
arrival.  I  cannot  say  "all  sources"  in  the  social 
scale,  for  I  have  not  been  presented  to  the  King 
(though  I  have  been  assured  that  I  should  have  had 
an  audience  with  him  wrere  he  at  present  in  Rome) 
nor  to  the  Pope  (though  a  high  church  official  was 
willing  to  charge  himself  with  the  office  of  procuring 
me  an  audience).  I  may  as  well  say  on  this  point 
that  I  would  like  to  meet  Italy's  King  as  a  man  who 
has  won  the  hearts  of  his  countrymen,  many  of  whom, 
like  myself,  would  be  content  to  see  his  "job"  abol- 
ished. And  most  certainly  I  would  pay  my  respects 
to  the  reverend  Pope  as  one  held  in  high  esteem  by 
so  many  thousands  of  American  trade  unionists.  I 
appreciate  fully  that  the  present  is  an  age  when  rank 
and  title  are  fading  in  recognition  of  a  common  man- 
hood. Why  should  not  a  representative  labor  man 
"shake"  and  confer  with  King  and  Pope? 

One  of  the  meetings  I  attended  on  Saturday  had 
been  called  by  Professor  Montemartini,  Director  of 
the  National  Labor  Bureau.  The  bodies  represented 
were:  The  Superior  Council  of  Labor,  Signor  Chiesa; 
the  Permanent  Committee  on  Labor,  Signor  Abbiate; 
the  Superior  Council  on  Emigration,  Signor  Nitti; 
the  Superior  Council  of  the  Navy,  Signor  Bruno;  the 
Commissariat  on  Emigration,  Signor  Rossi;  the 

165 


LABOR    IN    EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

National  Provident  Bank,  Professor  Medolaghi;  the 
National  Confederation  of  Labor,  Signer  Quartieroni; 
the  National  Federation  of  Agricultural  Laborers, 
Signor  Vezzani;  the  Parliamentary  Commission  of 
Inquiry  into  the  Conditions  of  Labor  in  the  Southern 
Provinces,  Professor  Colletti;  the  Municipality  of 
Rome,  Mayor  Ernest  Nathan;  the  Chamber  of  Com- 
merce of  Rome,  Signor  Carretti;  the  Assessor  of 
Hygiene  of  Rome,  Prof.  Rossi  Doria;  the  "Umani- 
taria"  of  Milan,  Dr.  Schiavi;  the  Rome  Labor 
Exchange,  Signor  Sabatina;  the  Society  of  Italian 
Agriculturists,  Professor  Burettini;  the  Association 
of  Travelling  Chairs  of  Agriculture,  Signor  Migliani. 
The  Association  of  Manufacturers  of  Milan,  the  Manu- 
facturing League  of  Turin,  and  the  Agricultural 
Assembly  of  Rome  also  ''adhered,"  as  they  say  here. 
This  list  is  here  given  simply  because  of  its  significance. 
The  titles  of  the  gentlemen  attending  the  meeting  I 
have  omitted,  though  every  one  has  a  title,  among  the 
least  being  ''Member  of  Parliament";  several  were 
prominent  trade-union  officials.  Professor  Montemar- 
tini  read  a  formal  address  of  welcome.  Two  hours 
were  taken  up  with  the  discussion  of  labor  questions, 
^among  them  the  attitude  of  the  American  unions 
toward  Italian  immigrants. 

Another  meeting  I  attended  was  with  delegates 
from  various  Italian  trade  unions,  called  by  Nicola 
Trevisonne,  a  strike  leader  well  known  throughout 
southern  Italy.  The  object,  as  stated,  was  to  discuss 
how  the  stream  of  Italian  laborers  going  yearly  to  the 
United  States  might  be  so  directed  as  to  lessen  com- 

166 


THE    AWAKENING    IN   ITALY 

petition  with  American  labor,  diminish  the  hardships 
of  the  Italians,  and  result  in  especially  benefiting  the 
farming  interests  of  America  through  timely  assist- 
ance in  gathering  the  crops  rather  than  in  glutting 
the  industrial  labor  market  in  a  few  places.  "It  is 
necessary,"  said  the  circular  letter  calling  the  meeting, 
"that  such  labor  should  be  disciplined,  organized,  and 
skilled  in  the  work  it  is  to  accomplish."  On  the  whole, 
there  was  profit  to  those  who  attended  the  meet- 
ing; amicable  feeling,  at  least,  was  promoted.  How- 
ever, a  curious  mental  attitude  was  here  disclosed, 
as  has  been  the  case  quite  uniformly  on  almost  every 
other  similar  occasion.  It  was  assumed  that,  first, 
immigration  to  America  is  a  right,  and,  secondly^ 
that  emigration  from  European  countries  is  to  be  an 
invariable  social  phenomenon.  With  both  of  these 
assumptions  I  have  taken  issue.  The  United  States, 
like  any  other  nation,  may,  if  essential,  regulate  or 
restrict  immigration.  And  much  of  the  energy 
exerted  by  Italy  and  other  governments  in  sending 
their  citizens  out  of  the  land  of  their  birth  ought  to  be 
directed  to  making  their  lot  more  tolerable  at  home. 
Italy  is  by  nature  rich  enough  and  big  enough  for 
millions  more  than  its  present  population. 

In  Rome  the  distinctive  working-class  movement 
is  threefold:  (i)  Regular  trade  unions,  usually  in 
some  degree  associated  with  parliamentary  Socialism 
and  looked  upon  as  rather  conservative;  (2)  the 
Socialist  party,  led  by  the  "intellectuals";  and 
(3)  mushroom  trade  unions  and  other  somewhat 
sporadic  striking  bodies  (the  sindicalisti) ,  which 

167 


LABOR    IN   EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

hold  strictly  aloof  from  politics.  Sometimes  their 
enemies  apply  to  the  members  of  the  latter  organiza- 
tions the  epithet  " anarchistic,"  but  leaders  among 
them  tell  me  they  are  simply  radical  individualists, 
with  a  definite  program  for  immediate  economic  steps, 
the  strike  being  the  main  weapon.  They  assert  that 
they  have  already  a  record  of  success,  though  their 
movement  is  the  latest  form  taken  in  Italy  by  the 
discontented  "proletariat."  While  the  Socialists  as  a 
party  have  not  held  a  formal  meeting  to  greet  me,  the 
other  two  organizations  just  referred  to  have  done  so 
— and  the  Socialists  in  numbers  have  attended.  Be- 
sides, a  very  good  meeting  was  held  yesterday  by  the 
Central  Co-operative  Society  of  Rome,  with  speeches 
and  a  collation  afterward. 

It  is  to  be  remembered  that  at  all  these  meetings 
my  addresses,  made  in  English,  were  translated,  in- 
variably to  patient  audiences.  At  one  of  yesterday's 
gatherings,  there  being  no  one  present  whose  com- 
mand of  both  English  and  Italian  was  sufficiently  cer- 
tain and  fluent  for  public  speaking,  a  gentleman  pres- 
ent spoke  my  speech  after  me  in  French,  from  which 
an  interpreter  gave  it  to  the  assemblage  in  Italian, 
third  hand.  And  so  the  light  is  spread ! 

In  this  record  of  gatherings  there  must  be  included 
a  word  as  to  a  luncheon  given  yesterday  by  the  Mayor 
of  Rome.  I  have  the  autographs  of  all  present, 
written  on  a  menu.  More  than  that,  I  have  the  in- 
delible impression  made  upon  me  there  by  the  words 
of  sincere  men.  Ernest  Nathan  is  the  first  Mayor  of 
Israeli tish  birth  that  Rome  has  ever  had.  He  is  one 

168 


THE    AWAKENING   IN   ITALY 

of  the  most  popular  men  in  Rome,  as  he  would  be  in 
America,  with  all  classes,  Catholics  included,  by  reason 
of  his  high  character,  broad  sympathies,  and  intelligent 
interest  in  the  movements  to-day  favorable  to  the 
working-people.  Rarely  have  I  met  a  man  so  in- 
timately acquainted  with  all  the  shades  of  political 
and  economic  opinion  among  advanced  thinkers  as 
Mayor  Nathan.  Besides,  I  am  told,  he  knows  every 
man  prominent  in  Rome  in  any  movement  or  organi- 
zation whatever.  I  was  glad  to  sit  at  table  with  him 
and  his  guests.  They  all  knew  sufficient  of  the  Amer- 
ican trade-union  movement  to  be  aware  of  its  militant 
character. 

In  thus  making  some  mention  of  a  number  of  the 
gatherings  to  which  I  have  been  rushed  during  the 
last  few  days,  my  purpose,  I  hope,  is  plain.  It  is  to 
show  my  American  readers  the  present  state  of  pre- 
vailing public  opinion  in  Italy,  or  its  great  centres 
rather,  with  relation  to  the  social  movements  of  to- 
day, and  in  particular  to  trade  unionism  as  developed 
in  the  United  States.  The  radical  working-men  here 
admire  American  unionism.  The  leaders  of  thought, 
regarding  a  world  -  wide  working  -  class  movement  as 
inevitable,  see  possibilities  in  our  American  methods 
for  progress  with  possible  peace,  for  continual  steps 
toward  a  better  society  without  violent  collision  or 
imperfectly  planned  reformation. 

I  have  been  attracted  in  Rome  to  the  International 
Institute  of  Agriculture  and  its  purposes.  Its  most 
general  aim  is  to  lessen  unnecessary  fluctuations  in 
the  world's  prices  of  the  staples  of  agriculture,  thus 

169 


LABOR   IN    EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

benefiting  the  capital  and  labor  of  farm  and  factory — 
of  the  farm,  because  such  fluctuations  are  manipulated 
against  the  interests  of  the  producer  and  therefore  of 
his  labor;  of  the  factory,  because  they  lead  to  pre- 
cautionary measures  on  the  part  of  the  manufacturer 
detrimental  to  the  interests  of  labor,  the  staples  being 
often  the  raw  material  of  the  factory.  The  way  to 
lessen  unnecessary  fluctuations,  the  promoters  of  the 
Institute  believe,  is  to  obtain,  assemble,  and  dissemi- 
nate timely  and  authoritative  reports  of  the  world's 
supply  of  the  staples,  publicity  being  the  determining 
factor  in  the  formation  of  prices  and  tending  toward 
their  steady  maintenance.  Such  reports  must  relate 
to  the  entire  producing  area  of  the  staples,  Secretary 
Wilson,  of  the  Department  of  Agriculture,  saying: 
"Reports  covering  part  of  an  area  of  a  given  crop  may 
be  used  by  self-interest  crop  -  reporting  agencies  to 
mislead."  At  present  there  is  no  such  authoritative 
information  to  be  had.  The  statements  obtainable 
consist  either  of  official  reports  issued  by  a  few  gov- 
ernments and  elaborated  under  varying  systems,  or 
(for  by  far  the  larger  portion  of  the  world's  summary) 
of  reports  gathered  and  published  at  private  expense 
by  divergent  groups  of  private  interests,  and  con- 
sequently biased.  The  few  who  understand  what  this 
situation  implies  stand  amazed  at  its  significance.  It 
points  to  a  monopoly  in  the  knowledge  of  the  world's 
supply;  dangerous,  because  responsible  to  no  nation. 
The  aim  of  such  monopoly  being  private  gain  at  pub- 
lic expense,  it  diminishes  the  measure  of  bread  to  the 
toilers  and  turns  topsy-turvy  the  law  of  supply  and 

170 


THE    AWAKENING    IN    ITALY 

demand.  And  it  is  to  check  this  form  of  cornering 
that  the  International  Institute  of  Agriculture  was  v 
founded.  Forty-eight  nations,  having  ratified  a  treaty, 
have  given  the  Institute  its  seat  in  Rome,  where  a 
noble  building  has  been  provided  for  it  by  the  King, 
Italy  not  being  an  exporting  or  importing  country 
for  the  world's  markets.  Each  of  the  nations  to  this 
treaty,  having  by  its  own  system  gathered  informa- 
tion as  to  its  growth  of  the  staples  of  agriculture,  is  to 
send  a  report  to  the  Institute,  where,  after  being  as- 
sembled with  the  reports  from  the  other  nations,  all 
the  knowledge  will  be  open  to  the  world,  free,  per- 
mitting supply  and  demand  to  operate  unimpeded. 

Mr.  David  Lubin,  delegate  of  the  United  States  to 
the  Institute,  is  devoting  his  time  and  large  means  to 
promoting  its  work.  I  have  reason  to  believe  in  his 
entire  sincerity,  having  watched  his  labors  for  fifteen 
years  in  the  United  States,  and  as  the  enterprise  is  a 
helpful  one  to  mankind  I  have  looked  into  it  as  best  I 
might,  and  deem  it  noteworthy  among  the  institutions 
I  have  visited  and  deserving  the  sympathetic,  prac- 
tical, and  continued  support  of  our  Federal  Govern- 
ment. The  Institute,  I  am  informed,  will  be  ready 
to  begin  issuing  its  reports  early  in  the  coming  year. 


OUR  ITALIAN  RELATIVES  COME  TO  STAY 

NAPLES,  September  26,   1909. 

MORE  than  one  hundred  thousand  emigrants  em- 
barked at  Italian  ports  for  the  United  States  during 
the  first  three  months  of  1909.  The  officials  of  the 
Emigration  Commission  of  Italy  say  that  this  rate  will 
not  be  maintained  for  the  remaining  three-fourths  of 
the  year,  their  estimate  for  the  entire  twelve  months 
being  225,000.  The  emigrants  leave  in  large  numbers 
Jm  the  spring  to  engage  in  the  outdoor  work  carried  on 
in  the  open  seasons  in  America — railroad  construction, 
farming,  building  operations,  and  the  like.  Other  than 
the  official  figures  of  the  Commission  have  been  quoted 
to  me,  according  to  which  more  than  200,000  Italian 
emigrants  left  for  the  United  States  in  the  first  six 
months  of  the  present  year,  the  actual  increase  over 
the  first  six  months  of  1908,  which  witnessed  a  falling 
off  of  emigration  due  to  the  commercial  crisis,  being 
151,506.  These  two  sets  of  statistics,  therefore,  in- 
dicate that  the  emigration  from  Italy  to  the  United 
States  in  1909  will  be  from  225,000  to  300,000.  The 
average  for  the  six  years  1902-07  was  about  250,000; 
in  1903,  the  number  was  214,767;  in  1906,  392,055;  in 
1907,  283,671.  The  total  number  of  emigrants  leaving 
Italy  for  all  countries  in  1906  was  787,000,  South 
America  receiving  the  majority. 

172 


OUR   ITALIAN    RELATIVES 

If  we  had  an  equal  yearly  emigration  from  the 
United  States  proportionate  to  the  population  of 
Italy,  it  would  reach  nearly  two  millions.  It  may  be 
imagined  what  a  profound  national  sensation  would 
be  occasioned  by  such  a  social  phenomenon.  We  have 
taken  into  the  United  States  every  year  for  a  decade 
a  net  foreign  addition  to  our  population  that  caused 
us  to  speak  of  a  million  coming  as  not  extraordinary. 
But  suppose  two  millions  of  our  working  -  people  were 
leaving  us !  Whether  or  not  Italians  are  as  precious  to 
Italy  as  real  Americans  are  to  the  United  States,  in  all 
Italy — so  far  as  I  am  able  to  judge — no  other  question 
equals  in  general  interest  that  of  the  loss  of  her 
people  through  emigration.  It  is  viewed  with  mingled 
sensations.  To  the  poverty-stricken  able-bodied  men 
seeking  work,  emigration  promises  bread,  liberty,  edu- 
cation ;  America  is  El  Dorado.  To  the  various  schools 
of  reformers  and  politicians,  it  is  a  source  for  remedial 
social  projects  and  office-winning  partisan  cries.  For 
the  Government,  it  inevitably  must  mean  a  colossal 
failure  of  its  institutions.  Why  should  men  by  the 
millions  be  starved  out  of  a  land  which  could  yield 
subsistence  to  twice  its  present  population? 

From  my  arrival  in  Italy  I  have  been  daily — aye, 
almost  hourly — in  communication  with  the  men  most 
closely  associated  with  emigration  as  a  public  question 
—Immigration  Commission  officials,  trade-union  rep- 
resentatives, public-spirited  citizens,  writers  on  the 
problem,  steamship-company  representatives.  Conse- 
quently, I  may  offer  some  observations  on  the  subject 
with  the  feeling  that  they  may  be  helpful  to  my  readers. 


LABOR   IN   EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

During  the  last  few  years  there  have  been  radical 
changes  in  Italy  in  the  methods  of  conducting  this 
great  migration  of  human  beings  to  the  New  World. 
For  a  decade  or  more,  in  the  '8o's  and  'go's,  the  bad 
treatment  of  Italian  emigrants  in  transit  to  America 
was  a  constant  theme  for  both  philanthropic  and  sen- 
sational writers.  Agitation  brought  beneficial  results. 
Of  these,  the  principal  in  its  effects  was  the  establish- 
ment, in  1901,  of  the  Italian  Emigration  Commission. 
Its  work  is  to  carry  into  effect  the  laws  on  the  subject 
passed  by  the  Italian  Parliament.  If  I  may  believe 
what  I  have  been  told  by  persons  in  various  walks  of 
life  whose  positions  bring  them  into  contact  with  the 
stream  of  emigrants  at  the  ports  of  embarkation,  the 
Commission  has  yearly  become  more  and  more  effect- 
ive, until  at  present  its  operations  are  at  the  highest 
in  point  of  efficiency  yet  attained  in  protecting  the 
emigrant  in  his  rights  and  obtaining  for  him  the  com- 
forts possible  during  his  steerage  transportation. 

The  chief  ports  of  departure  for  emigrants  are  Naples 
and  Palermo.  A  much  smaller  number  sail  from 
Genoa.  Five-sixths  of  our  new-comers  from  Italy  are 
from  the  southern  provinces — Sicily,  Naples,  Calabria, 
the  Abruzzi.  The  others  are  mainly  from  the  extreme 
northern  provinces  of  Piedmont,  Lombardy,  and  Ven- 
ice. From  the  centre  of  Italy — the  provinces  of  Tus- 
,cany  and  Rome,  for  example — we  get  very  few.  Not 
Jone  man  in  a  score  is  from  a  city ;  nearly  all  are  from 
farm  villages.  The  human  stream  that  pours  through 
the  city  of  Naples,  amounting  in  some  months  to 
tens  of  thousands,  carries  along  with  it  a  remarkably 


OUR    ITALIAN    RELATIVES 

small  number  of  its  people.  Why  are  these  venture- 
some seekers  for  work  in  the  New  World  country 
people  ?  Why  does  not  the  city  workman  emigrate  ? 
Is  it  because  he  is  more  keen  to  resent  imposition,  less 
liable  to  submit  himself  to  the  hardships  in  the  emi- 
grant's experience,  less  inclined  to  work?  Or  is  it  be- 
cause he  resists  the  artificial  processes  employed  in 
promoting  emigration  ? 

On  the  latter  point  I  have  it  from  several  sources  of 
information  that  the  day  of  drumming  emigrants  by 
false  promises  is  quite  past.  Neither  the  steamship 
companies  nor  any  other  agency  is  permitted,  as  at 
one  time  was  common,  to  distribute  posters  or  other 
printed  matter  containing  more  than  time-table  an- 
nouncements and  other  necessary  information  to  in- 
tending emigrants.  That  "publicity"  which  con- 
sisted of  extravagant  accounts  of  suddenly  acquired 
fortunes,  or  of  the  liberal  land  policy  of  railroad  com- 
panies or  our  Government  itself,  or  of  enormous  wages 
paid  in  certain  localities  in  America,  has  been  sup- 
pressed. There  are  thirteen  shipping  companies,  it  is 
true,  which  have  their  competing  agencies  throughout 
Italy,  but  these,  being  subject  to  the  Emigration  Com- 
mission's supervision,  are  greatly  restricted  in  their 
endeavors  to  obtain  "business." 

What  chiefly  induces  emigration  to-day  is  the  in- 
formation sent  home  to  friends  and  relatives  from 
Italians  in  America  or  given  to  their  neighbors  by  re- 
turned emigrants.  Usually  the  married  men  make 
the  venture  of  crossing  the  ocean  first  alone;  when 
they  have  saved  enough  they  return  for  their  families. 

175 


LABOR   IN    EUROPE    AND    AMERIjCA 

Besides,  many  of  the  younger  men  return  to  their  na- 
tive villages,  as  has  been  the  custom  for  generations 
with  migrating  Italian  workmen,  not  only  in  times  of 
crises,  but  after  an  illness,  or  for  the  purpose  of  marry- 
ing or  of  rejoining  their  parents  or  other  relatives  for  a 
time.  The  wanderers  thus  at  home  spread  the  story 
of  high  American  wages,  of  the  advantages  of  American 
citizenship,  of  the  future  awaiting  Italian  children  in 
the  land  of  the  common-school  and  other  democratic  in- 
stitutions— and  the  Italian  peasant  who  hears  the  won- 
drous tale  from  his  brother  or  neighbor  has  a  fever  for 
change  in  his  fibre  that  burns  until  he  too  boards  ship 
and  sails  westward. 

I  asked  several  emigrants  about  to  sail  at  Naples 
why  they  were  going  to  America.  All  replied  in  about 
the  same  words — "To  make  money. "  But  an  Amer- 
ican professional  man,  for  years  in  this  port,  who  has 
talked  with  hundreds  that  have  returned  from  America 
only  to  take  a  last  farewell  to  Italy  and  cross  the 
Atlantic  again,  accompanied  by  their  families,  told  me : 
"This  is  but  their  crude  way  of  expressing  their  ideal 
that  lies  beyond  the  desire  to  make  money.  The  poor, 
honest,  hard-working  Italian — and  this  the  emigrant 
usually  is — has  his  aspirations :  a  home,  a  happy  wife, 
education  for  his  children,  the  life  of  a  fully  developed 
man  for  himself.  All  this  is  evidenced  in  his  speedy 
transformation  after  enjoying  for  a  few  years  in  Amer- 
ica his  increased  wages  and  opportunities  for  improve- 
ment." The  stock  story  of  the  rejected  bath-tub  by 
the  unwashed  coming  up,  as  it  invariably  does  in  any 
conversation  relating  to  the  emigrant,  this  gentleman 

176 


OUR    ITALIAN    RELATIVES 

had  some  testimony  pertinent  to  the  subject.  Again 
and  again,  he  said,  he  had  witnessed  the  indignation  of 
southern  Italian  emigrant  women  on  board  ship  when 
urged  to  take  a  good,  wholesome  wash  in  one  of  the 
steerage  bath-rooms  now  provided  on  all  the  steamers. 
"Me  take  a  bath?  Never!  Why,  I  am  not  a  bad 
woman!"  But  he  had  also  seen  springing  up  in 
Italian  villages  what  are  called  American  cottages, 
built  either  by  returned  emigrants  who  had  gained  a 
competency  in  America  or  by  relatives  who,  inheriting 
or  accumulating  some  means  in  Italy,  had  become 
acquainted  with  the  comforts  of  American  home  life 
through  their  relatives,  now  full-fledged  Americans. 
These  new  cottages,  marvellous  examples  of  civilized 
life  to  the  people  in  an  Italian  village,  possess  as  their 
crowning  glory  that  thing  of  primary  importance,  a 
bath-room,  all  the  equipments  of  which  bear  the  firm 
name  and  trade-mark  of  a  first-class  American  plumb- 
ers' supply-house. 

Protected  by  the  Italian  Government  from  the 
misrepresentations  of  unscrupulous  steamship  drum- 
mers for  trade,  the  emigrant  leaving  his  village  for 
America  is  at  once  taken  in  hand  by  the  Italian 
Emigrant  Commission.  With  the  railway  journey 
to  his  port  of  departure  begins  an  actual,  though  as 
yet  not  entirely  thorough,  supervision  over  him  which 
never  ceases  until  he  sets  foot  at  Ellis  Island.  In 
cases,  until  some  time  afterward,  agents  of  the  Italian 
Government  look  after  parties  of  their  compatriots. 

The  emigrant  arriving  at  an  Italian  port  from  the 
interior  is  by  law  entitled  before  going  on  his  vessel  to 
12  I77 


LABOR    IN    EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

thirty-six  hours'  keep  at  a  city  lodging-house  at  the 
expense  of  the  steamship  company  from  which  he  has 
bought  his  ticket.  Emigrant  lodging-houses  are  li- 
censed and  supervised  by  the  Emigration  Commission. 
In  each  room  is  posted  a  notice  giving  its  measure- 
ments, its  air  space,  its  allowable  number  of  beds,  and 
other  particulars  relating  to  hygiene.  The  food  is  also 
prescribed.  I  visited  one  of  these  lodging-houses,  and 
found  it  better  than  might  have  been  expected;  its 
rooms  were  light,  airy,  and  tidy;  the  bedding  was 
clean,  though  of  coarse  material. 

Before  going  on  board  ship  the  emigrant  is  advised 
to  change  his  Italian  money  into  American,  or  to  buy 
postal  orders,  a  branch  of  the  Bank  of  Naples  being 
established  for  these  purposes  in  the  Emigration  Com- 
mission's building  close  to  the  quays.  Italian  and 
American  doctors  then  take  him  in  hand.  His  outfit 
of  clothing,  if  suspicious,  is  run  into  a  sort  of  retort,  in 
which  it  is  subjected  to  a  heat  that  leaves  in  it  nothing 
alive.  The  doctors  examine  him  for  contagious  dis- 
eases, especially  of  the  eyes  and  scalp,  common  among 
the  Italian  poor.  The  Commission's  agents  and  two 
physicians  whom  I  interrogated  on  this  point  told 
me  that  on  the  average  20  per  cent  of  the  Italians 
presenting  themselves  for  passage  to  North  America 
are  rejected  on  account  of  disease.  The  Italian  Emi- 
gration Bulletin  for  1909  mentions  the  fact  that  it  is 
much  easier  for  Italians  to  land  in  Argentina  without 
risk  of  rejection  than  in  the  United  States.  The  pro- 
portion passing  under  medical  care  on  the  voyage  to 
South  America  is  by  about  20  per  cent  the  greater. 

178 


OUR    ITALIAN    RELATIVES 

This  system  of  rejection  at  the  port  of  departure  gives 
rise  both  to  hardships  and  deceptions.  In  a  family 
—of  three,  five,  seven,  perhaps — the  mother,  or  father, 
or  a  baby  may  be  rejected.  At  the  last  moment  a 
decision  must  be  made  as  to  what  can  be  done,  with 
the  result  that  in  some  cases  the  entire  family  remains 
in  Naples  or  Palermo,  or  the  stricken  one  is  hurriedly 
provided  for  and  left  behind.  Perhaps  the  disease  has 
manifested  itself  only  after  the  family  left  home.  It 
is  said  that  since  the  enforcement  of  the  strict  regula- 
tions of  the  Commission  the  emigration  of  Italians 
from  Italian  ports  has  relatively  decreased,  while  in- 
creasing at  Belgian,  German,  and  French  ports.  The 
20  per  cent  excluded,  or  a  part  of  them,  and  all  others 
who  believe  they  might  be  rejected,  take  chances  on 
being  landed  from  non-Italian  vessels  at  New  York, 
where  the  exclusions  are  less  than  i  per  cent  from 
all  causes.  The  emigrant  will  argue  that  his  ailment 
may  pass  away  in  a  few  days,  or  that  the  examining 
physicians  may  have  been  mistaken,  or  that  the  Ellis 
Island  inspection  may  allow  him  to  slip  through. 

On  board  the  steamer  the  emigrant  has  a  legally 
stipulated  number  of  cubic  feet  in  the  steerage  sleep- 
ing-quarters;  he  has  food  of  a  quality  and  quantity 
prescribed  by  the  Commission,  and  he  is  protected 
throughout  the  voyage  by  an  agent  of  the  Italian 
Government.  On  Friday  I  witnessed  the  embarka- 
tion of  about  two  hundred  emigrants  on  the  Lloyd- 
Sabaudo  steamship  San  Giorgio.  If  there  was  possi- 
bility to  avoid  the  Italian  Government's  measures  for 
the  protection  of  the  emigrant  on  this  vessel,  the  fact 

179 


LABOR   IN   EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

was  not  apparent.  I  visited  at  my  leisure  the  steerage 
(in  which  the  sexes  were  separated) ,  the  kitchens,  the 
bath-rooms,  etc.,  and  the  women's  hospital,  the  latter 
having  two  nurses  in  attendance  and  being  well  fitted 
out  for  its  purposes.  The  steerage  passengers  were 
a  well-appearing  lot  as  to  health,  exhibiting  certain 
general  characteristics  of  southern  Italians  so  notice- 
able to  Americans — an  incapacity  to  see  why  children 
should  be  over-encumbered  with  clothing  for  the  pur- 
pose of  concealment,  an  indisposition  to  study  the 
arts  of  the  manicure,  a  robust  indifference  to  the  accu- 
mulation on  the  deck  of  the  rubbish  and  waste  we  call 
dirt.  The  San  Giorgio  was  also  to  take  on  board  five 
hundred  emigrants  at  Palermo  to-day. 

In  the  Commissioner's  bureau  at  Naples  the  emi- 
grants can  obtain  instructions  as  to  how  to  proceed  on 
landing  at  New  York.  On  the  walls  hang  posters  of 
the  big  official  Italian  lodging-house  in  Broad  Street, 
where  they  may  have  a  bed  at  ten  cents  a  night,  and 
of  the  general  Italian  protective  agency  in  Center 
Street. 

Thus  far  has  the  Italian  Government  gone  in  its 
paternal  care  of  its  emigrants.  Let  us  hope  these 
steps  are  but  preparatory  to  a  further  stage  in  which 
it  will  use  all  its  endeavors  to  keep  them  at  home. 
They  would  be  happier  in  Italy  if  the  conditions  of  life 
were  barely  tolerable. 

Perhaps  America  may  be  the  providential  means  of 
another,  a  social,  renaissance  in  Italy.  To  some  ex- 
tent it  has  already  revolutionized  the  nation's  labor 
market.  Before  the  full  flood  of  emigration  to  Amer- 

180 


OUR   ITALIAN    RELATIVES 

ica,  the  farm-hand's  wages  in  the  backward  provinces 
ran  from  30  to  50  cents  a  day  in  harvest-time,  the  rest 
of  the  year  being  less.  Now  the  range  is  60  cents  up- 
ward, even  in  cases  to  $1.50.  Able-bodied  young  or 
middle-aged  laborers  are  scarce  in  districts  where  only 
a  decade  ago  strong  men  were  forever  begging  for 
work.  Statistics  show  this  must  be  true.  The  Italian 
Commission  issued  a  few  years  ago  a  diagram  map, 
made  up  mostly  from  the  United  States  census,  show- 
ing that  the  number  of  Italians  in  the  various  States 
in  1900  amounted  to  about  eight  hundred  thousand. 
The  same  bureau  now  estimates  that  next  year's  cen- 
sus will  report  the  number  between  two  and  two  and 
a  half  millions.  South  America  has  in  all  taken  more. 
It  is  not  only  the  absence  of  these  workers  from  Italy 
that  influences  the  nation's  labor  market;  there  is  a 
changed  mental  attitude  on  the  part  of  those  who  re- 
main. They  believe  that  the  worst  fate  to  befall  them 
in  America  promises  something  more  than  the  average 
standard  of  living  at  home;  the  modern  revolt  of 
labor  against  its  deprivations  through  the  privileges 
given  other  social  classes  is  penetrating  to  the  re- 
motest corners  of  the  kingdom;  the  national  schools, 
poor  as  they  may  be,  are  lowering  the  percentage  of 
illiterates,  which  but  a  few  years  ago  in  the  southern 
country  distncts  reached  a  general  average  of  at  least 
fifty.  Conditions,  on  the  whole,  cannot  permit  labor 
in  Italy  to  fall  back  to  its  level  when  it  was  asleep  and 
in  deep  ignorance.  It  is  fast  awakening  to  a  new  life. 
While  in  Milan,  and  afterward  in  Rome,  I  was  asked 
regarding  the  general  situation  of  Italian  labor  in 

181 


LABOR    IN    EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

America  and  what  suggestions  I  had  for  its  improve- 
ment. In  reply  I  summarized  the  notorious  facts  rel- 
ative to  the  abuses  of  the  padrones,  the  interpreters, 
the  so-called  bankers  in  the  Italian  colonies  in  Amer- 
ica, and  the  steamship  companies  of  various  countries 
competing  for  steerage  passengers.  Besides  such  steps 
v  as  have  been  taken  by  the  Italian  Government,  I 
recommended  that  the  trade-unionists  of  Italy  en- 
deavor to  organize  Italian  laborers  as  far  as  possible 
before  going  to  America.  It  would  be  well  for  both 
countries.  When  Italy  ceases  to  be  a  reservoir  for 
slavish  labor  to  American  employers,  American  trade- 
union  men  will  have  fewer  strikes  and  fewer  strikers 
to  support.  The  emigrants  themselves,  instructed  in 
trade-unionism,  would  be  less  liable  to  take  the  places 
of  workers  and  could  be  assisted  in  maintaining  the 
American  standard  of  living,  another  name  for  the 
union  scale  of  wages  and  the  union  workday.  The 
statement  of  these  simple  facts  was  construed  in  some 
quarters,  where  "special  interests"  prevailed,  as  the 
"revelation  "  of  my  real  mission  to  Italy.  My  answer 
was  that  my  only  mission  to  Italy  was  to  be  help- 
ful to  America's  and  Italy's  workers.  The  comment 
upon  this  statement  was  that  I  should  be  "regarded 
as  a  diplomat!"  The  special  interests  to  which 
I  particularly  refer  are  the  so-called  "intellectuals" 
who  are  at  the  head  of  the  Socialist  movement  of  the 
kingdom — doctors,  lawyers,  professors,  and  the  like. 
They  have  declared  that  I  am  "playing  a  game,"  try- 
ing to  paralyze  Italian  emigration  and  the  consequent 
competition  with  America's  workers,  by  demanding 

182 


OUR   ITALIAN    RELATIVES 

organization  of  the  laborers  before  they  should  leave 
the  country.  Lastly,  taking  my  alleged  "mission" 
most  seriously,  the  working-men  leaders  of  the  Labor 
Exchange  in  Naples  (Borsa  del  Lavoro)  urged  that 
the  American  Federation  of  Labor  appoint  special 
organizers  from  among  their  own  number  to  "dis- 
cipline" Italian  laborers  —  organize  and  teach  them 
unionism — in  the  southern  provinces.  I  can  only  tell 
these  leaders  that  our  Federation  has  never  contem- 
plated invading  Italy,  that  my  mission  is  but  to  be 
helpful  and  to  seek  information,  and  that  in  recom- 
mending organization  I  but  ask  the  wage-workers  to 
direct  their  own  energies  in  their  own  way,  according 
to  union  principles,  well  known  and  established. 

As  to  the  "intellectuals"  in  Italy,  they  deserve  a 
paragraph  in  a  special  letter  which  I  hope  to  write  on 
the  men  of  that  kidney  who  are  at  present  playing  a 
disappearing  role  in  European  trade-unionism.  I  have 
frequently  asked  Italians  why  their  union  officials  wer^/ 
not  wage- workers  of  the  trade.  In  not  a  few  cases  the 
reply  has  been  that  among  the  unskilled  in  this  country 
trade-unionism  is  a  comparatively  new  movement ;  the 
impulse  for  organization  has  come  mostly  from  outside 
the  masses  themselves;  the  "discipline"  must  be  im- 
parted from  men  of  the  higher  brow;  and,  too,  the 
working-classes  are  to  be  inducted  into  the  "inter- 
national revolution  of  the  proletariat " ;  the  organiza- 
tions, as  formed,  are  to  be  taught  economics,  "class 
consciousness,"  the  co-operative  commonwealth — and 
politics.  I  have  noticed  that  in  general  they  have 
taken  the  last  lesson  first,  to  the  neglect  and  detriment 

183 


LABOR   IN    EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

of  the  interest  of  the  workers,  the  "intellectuals"  tak- 
ing the  offices  and  possessing  the  advantages  and 
emoluments  thereof  as  all  their  own. 

It  is  worth  noting  that  in  every  stratum  of  the  real 
life  of  Italy  I  have  been  regarded  and  treated  as  an 
American  representative  of  a  great  cause  for  the  up- 
lift of  man  in  every  land.  The  Press  has  published 
many  columns  of  news  articles  on  the  labor  question 
as  related  to  the  American  Federation  of  Labor — 
interviews  and  editorials.  It  may  seem  vain,  but  I 
am  fully  persuaded  that  the  real  movement  for  labor's 
disinthralment  in  Italy  has  been  given  a  considerable 
impetus  forward  and  upward  through  my  visit.  I 
have  been  frequently  told  so  in  the  last  few  days.  I 
fervently  hope  it  is  true. 


GENOA  AND  TURIN— A  DAY'S  WORK  IN  EACH 

HOME  COMING,  AT  SEA,  October  S,  1909. 

MY  trip  to  Italy,  from  Paris  back  to  Paris,  took  up 
just  fifteen  days — September  14-29.  The  time  was 
distributed  in  this  order:  Milan,  two  days;  Florence, 
a  half-day ;  Rome,  four  and  a  half  days ;  Naples,  three 
and  a  half;  Genoa,  one  and  a  half;  Turin,  a  half. 
Three  full  nights  were  spent  on  fast  express  trains, 
besides  several  parts  of  nights.  During  this  busy 
journey  I  caught  an  aviator's  glimpse  of  the  rich 
and  sunny  land  of  Italy,  saw  the  leading  men  in  the 
various  working-class  movements,  whether  radical 
or  moderate,  interviewed  government  officials  whose 
duties  bring  them  into  contact  with  the  wage-earners, 
and  collected  enough  books,  pamphlets,  circulars,  etc., 
on  social  questions  to  keep  a  good  reader  occupied 
many  a  day. 

Some  of  my  American  correspondents  have  asked 
me  in  what  manner  I  was  enjoying  "  my  vacation." 
Others,  readers  of  these  letters,  have  wished  to  know 
my  methods  of  collecting  information.  May  I,  in  re- 
ply to  both  queries,  speak  somewhat  in  detail  of  my 
day  and  a  half  in  Genoa  as  an  example  ?  My  Amer- 
ican friend,  J.  W.  Sullivan,  of  New  York,  and  I  arrived 
in  that  beautiful  hill-skirted  seaport  at  half  past  six 

185 


LABOR   IN    EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

o'clock  in  the  morning,  having  left  Naples  at  two  the 
previous  afternoon.  After  breakfast  and  a  wash-up  at 
a  hotel,  we  made  our  way  about  nine  to  the  hall  and 
headquarters  of  the  Central  Labor  Union  (Camera  del 
Lavoro).  A  half -hour  there  was  taken  up  by  the 
assistant  secretaries  in  gathering  together  some  of  the 
local  leaders — the  secretaries  of  the  carpenters'  and 
typographical  unions,  secretaries  of  other  bodies,  the 
editor  of  the  local  working-men's  daily  newspaper. 
Meantime  I  had  been  shown  the  meeting-hall  of  the 
organized  groups,  some  of  the  secretaries'  offices,  and 
the  display  of  two  or  three  score  letter-boxes  in  the 
hallway,  one  for  each  organization — testimony  as  to 
the  much-mingled  character  of  the  local  movement, 
made  up,  as  it  is,  of  longshoremen's  companionship 
groups,  municipal  employes'  associations,  distributive 
co-operative  societies,  semi -political  bodies,  and  both 
skilled  and  unskilled  labor  unions. 

Then  interviews.  A  member  of  the  Italian  Cham- 
ber of  Deputies,  a  lawyer  representing  a  working-class 
constituency,  was  my  chief  interrogator.  The  re- 
sponses to  the  inquiries  put  by  him  and  the  other 
representative  Italians,  as  written  up  by  its  editor, 
made  two  columns  in  next  morning's  issue  of  the  work- 
ing-men's paper,  //  Lavoro.  Questioning  from  my  side 
took  up  nearly  the  rest  of  the  day  as  we  went  about 
the  city  in  a  party.  None  of  the  Genovese  we  met 
spoke  English.  Several  of  them  talked  in  French  to 
me,  and  my  colleague  rapidly  translated  to  me  their 
statements,  at  times  sentence  by  sentence,  besides  in- 
forming me  as  to  the  substance  of  the  matter  in  print 

186 


GENOA    AND   TURIN 

in  Italian  which  our  friends  from  time  to  time  handed 
over  to  us — reports,  circulars,  newspapers,  etc. 

A  visit  then  to  the  Department  of  Docks,  which  in 
Genoa  stands  separate  from  both  the  municipal  and 
general  governments — a  unique  feature  of  administra- 
tion in  Italy,  I  was  told.  The  administrative  palace 
of  the  department,  an  ancient  edifice  restored  and 
beautified,  is  one  of  the  interesting  sights  of  the  city. 
A  short  visit  next  to  the  steamship  Moltke,  which  lay 
in  the  harbor,  taking  on  emigrants  and  other  passen- 
gers to  America.  A  look  at  a  co-operative  store.  I 
declined  making  a  visit  of  inspection  to  the  co-opera- 
tive printing-office ;  I  had  already  seen  several  in  Italy 
— all  alike.  An  explanation  by  our  guides  of  the 
co-operative  methods  of  the  longshoremen,  somewhat 
resembling  those  of  our  lake-port  workers.  A  running 
conversation  during  the  hours  we  spent  in  going  from 
point  to  point,  our  subject  being  the  trade  union  and 
political  organization  and  methods  of  the  working- 
classes  of  the  city.  As  I  was  already  acquainted  with 
Italian  methods  in  labor  and  political  movements,  my 
inquiries  were  quite  of  a  schedule  form,  and  the  replies 
embodied  but  little  that  was  new.  In  the  evening,  on 
getting  back  to  our  hotel,  additional  packages  of 
printed  reports,  etc.,  were  awaiting  us — to  be  digested 
months  hence  in  America. 

As  the  places  of  amusement  in  a  city  have  their 
revelations  as  to  the  tastes  and  ideas  of  the  classes 
patronizing  them,  it  is  a  question  whether  my  visit  to 
one  of  them  that  evening  was  play  or  work.  Genoa 
at  the  time  of  my  visit  had  open  a  very  slim  list  of 

187 


LABOR   IN   EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

theatres,  and  these  only  for  variety  performances. 
My  guides  objected  to  one  which  seemed  to  be  possibly 
a  resort  for  the  plain  people,  saying  it  gave  so  poor  a 
show  as  not  to  be  worth  visiting.  We  went  to  the 
best  —  save  the  mark!  It  opened  at  nine  o'clock. 
The  orchestra  seats  were  three  lire  (sixty  cents),  but 
a  chair  in  a  kennel  called  a  "loge"  above  the  orches- 
tra level  cost  a  lire  or  two  more.  Rather  a  slim  attend- 
ance in  the  costlier  parts  of  the  house,  but  in  the  rear, 
in  the  thirty  and  twenty  cent  places,  the  benches  were 
packed,  mostly  by  young  men.  As  a  whole,  the  au- 
dience would  be  classed  in  Europe  as  "bourgeois" — 
not  of  the  element  which  works  so  long  and  hard  as  to 
render  smart  personal  appearance  difficult  of  attain- 
ment. The  performance,  taken  in  its  entirety,  told 
the  story  of  popular  show -place  development  in 
Genoa.  Interlarded  in  the  dozen  numbers  on  the  pro- 
gram were  six  given  by  young  women  soloists,  girls 
of  about  one  type — dark-eyed,  jetty  -  haired,  short- 
skirted,  much  bespangled.  Each  sang  half  a  dozen 
songs.  Not  one  singer  was  possessed  of  a  tolerable 
voice,  or  of  more  than  ordinary  good  looks,  or  of  the 
knowledge  of  stage  business  to  be  expected  of  an  ac- 
tress of  mediocre  qualifications.  The  airs  they  sang 
were  flat,  commonplace,  and  monotonous,  but  all 
were  applauded.  One  of  these  dull  stars  was  called 
out  repeatedly.  Why  ?  Those  who  could  understand 
what  the  words  signified  knew  better  than  I.  There 
was  no  mistake  possible  in  the  gestures  and  glances. 
I  asked  one  of  our  guides  as  to  the  average  salary  of 
these  young  women.  The  reply  was  ten  lire  a  night 

1 88 


GENOA   AND  TURIN 

— about  two  dollars.  In  Europe  talent  which  on  se- 
rious cultivation  is  not  pronounced  receives  but  beg- 
garly compensation.  Even  that  which  is  good  but 
not  yet  famous  may  wait  long  for  recognition.  Only 
a  few  nights  before,  while  attending  a  performance  of 
The  Pearl  Fisher,  in  Naples,  an  old  resident  of  that 
city  said  to  me:  "Here,  in  the  Mercadante,  I  heard 
Caruso  in  this  same  opera  when  he  sang  at  five  francs 
a  night!"  An  American  dealer  in  fine  hand-painted 
fans,  on  entering  an  atelier  in  Vienna  where  he  was 
always  sure  of  bargains,  observed  that  the  finest  ar- 
tist among  the  five  painters  of  the  force  was  missing. 
"  Yes,"  said  the  proprietor,  "he  had  a  chance  to  better 
his  condition;  he  has  become  a  tram-car  conductor." 

Orchestral  music  is  much  more  common  throughout  / 
Europe  than  in  America;  theatre,  concert  -  hall,  and 
hotel  and  restaurant  orchestras  are  usually  double 
the  size  of  ours.  I  was  told  in  Paris  by  an  old-time 
American  journalist,  who  is  now  a  true  Parisian,  that 
some  of  the  first  violinists  of  the  superb  opera  orches- 
tra in  that  city  are  paid  forty  dollars  a  month — an 
evidence  of  the  superabundance  of  talent  just  a  grade 
or  two  short  of  the  highest.  In  England  some  of  our 
American  vaudeville  stars,  accustomed  to  their  hun- 
dreds a  week,  are  offered  only  as  much  a  month,  and 
they  take  it  or  go  home,  unless  they  happen  to  strike 
the  popular  fancy,  when  they  can  demand  more,  and 
then  too  they  may  have  as  many  as  four  engagements 
in  London  every  night.  As  to  journalists,  I  heard 
rather  pitiful  tales  of  their  remuneration  in  nearly 
every  country  I  visited.  There  are,  of  course,  a  few 

189 


LABOR   IN    EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

celebrated  pens  on  each  of  the  larger  daily  newspapers, 
but  on  the  Press,  as  in  Art,  second-rate  or  average 
talent  abounds  in  the  market,  and  consequently  runs 
few  automobiles.  Its  tendencies  are  rather  to  street- 
cars. 

But — the  labor  question  ?  Dear  friends,  that  is  pre- 
cisely about  what  I  am  writing.  In  America  our  mu- 
sicians are  organized ;  ninety-nine-hundredths  of  them 
have  found  out  that  their  art  is  a  merchantable  com- 
modity subject  to  competition,  which,  unchecked, 
would  work  injury  to  all  in  the  profession.  We  have 
also  large  art-work  factories,  where  the  precious  met- 
als, for  example,  are  wrought,  and  the  organized 
artists  in  them  need  not  aspire  to  become  street-car 
conductors,  though,  by  the  way,  these  worthy  workers 
where  organized  have  shorter  hours  and  higher  pay  as 
compared  with  their  competitors.  Our  artist  workers 
and  unskilled  toilers  are  equally  eligible  to  organiza- 
tion, and  all  are  protected  and  benefited.  Labor  or- 
ganization of  the  highly  skilled  and  semi-professional 
Clement  of  society  has  progressed  further  in  America 
than  in  Europe.  There  the  intellectual  proletariat  is 
a  distinct  and  unorganized  element  of  society.  It  is 
described  to  me  as  being  in  active  rebellion,  open  or 
secret,  against  society  as  influenced  by  the  European 
monarchies.  It  is  plotting  against  the  standing  armies, 
against  the  Church  as  united  with  the  State,  against 
hereditary  aristocracies,  against  all  the  artificial  ob- 
stacles that  exalt  vested  privilege,  and  consequently 
result  in  giving  the  less  opportunity  to  merit  to  gain 
recognition. 

190 


GENOA    AND   TURIN 

On  coming  out  of  the  Genoa  theatre  we  strolled 
nearly  two  miles  along  well-lighted  streets  to  gain  our 
hotel,  which  was  near  the  station.  Our  guide  directed 
my  attention  to  the  portici  of  the  Via  Venti  Set- 
tembre,  a  marvellous  marble-and-granite  two-story 
colonnade  on  each  side  of  the  street  extending  for 
perhaps  half  a  mile.  The  finish  of  the  stonework,  the 
variety  in  the  architecture,  the  designs  of  the  ceilings, 
the  massiveness  of  the  structure  of  these  portici  place 
them  among  those  marvels  of  art  which  continually 
astonish  the  tourist  in  Italy.  Passing  a  square  sur- 
rounded by  great  public  buildings  we  entered  the  Via 
Roma,  along  which  is  ranged  a  series  of  palaces  seldom 
rivalled  in  any  other  European  city.  Side-alleys,  nar- 
row as  ordinary  hallways,  wound  their  way  down  hill 
toward  the  harbor.  A  fact  to  be  noted  in  these  streets, 
brilliantly  lighted  by  electricity,  was  that  before  mid- 
night all  were  deserted.  We  walked  blocks  without 
meeting  even  a  policeman.  There  is  no  "night  life" 
in  Genoa,  except  in  a  cafe  or  two,  which  to  be  found 
must  be  sought.  Rome,  too,  by  the  way,  at  ten  o'clock 
is  as  quiet  as  a  country  village.  The  street  scenes  to 
which  one  grows  accustomed  in  European  cities  gener- 
ally on  leaving  the  theatre  are  rarely  to  be  witnessed, 
I  am  told,  in  any  city  in  Italy  except  Milan.  In 
Naples  one  may  sit  for  an  hour  in  front  of  the  Cafe* 
Gambrinus,  at  the  heart  of  the  most  brilliantly  lighted 
quarter,  until  midnight,  when  the  cafes  close,  and  not 
see  one  example  of  what  gives  Piccadilly,  Friedrich- 
strasse,  and  the  Boulevard  Madeleine  their  peculiar 
reputation.  The  treasurer  of  a  large  Neapolitan  hotel 

191 


LABOR    IN    EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

system,  whose  duties  have  carried  him  to  points  fre- 
quented by  tourists  from  Egypt  to  Belgium,  told  me 
that  no  Italian  girls  are  to  be  seen  among  the  throngs 
of  light  women  commonly  found  close  upon  the  track 
of  wealth  seeking  diversion.  These  facts — if  such  they 
really  are — throw  some  light  on  the  problem  of  vice 
as  associated  with  poverty.  Some  poor  nations  have 
been  famous  for  their  virtues.  Italy  is  poor?  (No! 
The  land  is  rich.  The  vast  majority  of  Italians  are 
poor.)  The  women  are  sturdy,  brave,  hard-working. 

Before  leaving  Genoa  for  Turin,  the  next  morning  at 
eleven  o'clock,  we  saw  the  city  in  its  larger  features  by 
taxicab.  Our  chauffeur  knew  just  where  to  go  and  how 
long  to  remain  at  each  view-point  in  order  to  give  us 
a  bird's-eye  view  of  the  city  and  bring  his  taximeter 
to  mark  a  reasonably  good  charge.  He  zigzagged 
the  auto  up  the  series  of  high  hills  that  enclose  Genoa, 
through  fine  new  streets  flanked  with  great  detached 
apartment-houses  and  past  well-kept  squares.  The 
grand  view  of  the  city  and  harbor  from  any  of  the 
heights  at  which  we  stopped  that  fine  morning  was  one 
of  the  rewards  for  his  troubles  to  the  tired  traveller. 
Genoa  is  in  all  parts  picturesque,  at  points  in  the  new 
city  magnificent,  while  in  the  old  down-town  streets  it 
is  a  reminder  of  the  Middle  Ages. 

Our  chauffeur  put  us  down  at  the  station  in  time  for 
our  train.  He  was  one  of  that  most  modern  type 
developed  by  his  new  profession,  the  athletic  and 
courteous,  daring  yet  cautious,  driver  of  a  power- 
horse;  excellent  as  a  guide,  ready  as  a  mechanician. 
Beyond  all  that,  the  chauffeur  must  be  taximetrically 

192 


GENOA    AND   TURIN 

honest.  He  is  in  general  a  fine  fellow.  I  tender  him 
my  respects.  He  saved  me  days  and  weeks  of  time 
in  seeing  Europe. 

In  Turin  my  duties  were  confined  to  an  interview 
with  the  leaders  of  the  General  Confederation  of  Labor 
of  Italy.  It  terminated  to  the  entire  satisfaction  of 
both  sides.  Some  misunderstanding  as  to  what  my 
visit  to  Italy  signified  had  arisen  through  my  meeting 
representatives  of  the  governmental  departments  in 
Rome  and  the  leaders  of  the  labor  movement  in 
southern  Italy,  which  is  not  in  accord  with  that  of  the 
north.  Some  of  the  newspapers,  also,  making  wild 
guesses  as  to  what  had  brought  me  to  Italy,  had  tried 
to  set  up  an  imaginary  tilt  between  the  Confederation 
of  Italy  and  the  Federation  of  America.  It  seemed  a 
popular  belief  that  America  was  as  deeply  agitated 
over  Italian  immigration  as  Italy  itself.  Our  unions 
were  described  as  opposed  to  immigration  and  sys- 
tematically preventing  Italian  workmen  from  joining 
American  organizations. 

To  the  Turin  delegates  I  could  but  repeat  the  fact 
that  our  unions  in  general  are  anxious  to  organize  the 
immigrants.  Many  of  our  skilled  trade  unions  admit 
a  qualified  foreign  new-comer  as  a  member  on  produc- 
tion of  his  home  union  card.  The  Italian  confreres 
at  Turin  themselves  cited  no  cases  in  which  Italian 
unionists  had  been  excluded  from  American  unions. 
They  were  also  satisfied  with  my  statement  that  no 
treaty  had  been  thought  of  between  our  unions  and 
the  Italian  Government  or  the  southern  unions.  Be- 
fore it  should  enter  into  negotiations  with  any  other 
13  193 


LABOR   IN    EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

organization  in  Italy  the  American  Federation  of  La- 
bor would  doubtless  recognize  the  Italian  Confedera- 
tion. As  to  the  Americans  joining  the  International 
Secretariat,  that  was  a  separate  question  yet  to  be 
acted  upon  at  our  annual  convention. 

The  Confederation  of  Labor  of  Italy  has  a  total 
membership  of  about  three  hundred  and  twenty-five 
thousand,  as  reported  by  General  Secretary  Rigola, 
in  Turin.  In  composition  and  form  the  Building 
Trades  Union,  whose  headquarters  I  visited,  repre- 
sents the  common  type  of  the  big  unions  in  the  Con- 
federation, which  is  of  the  industrial  system.  This 
national  union,  with  about  forty-five  thousand  mem- 
bers, takes  in  on  a  common  basis  of  membership  a 
considerable  number  of  the  various  trades  the  labor 
of  which  is  connected  with  house-building.  In  all  but 
the  larger  cities  these  separate  trades  have  but  one 
common  union.  They  have  one  kind  of  travelling-card 
within  Italy,  but  for  international  transferral  there  is 
a  special  card,  given  only  to  certain  trades.  Nearly 
one  hundred  thousand  Italians  who  do  the  rough  work 
on  buildings  migrate  every  spring  to  other  European 
countries,  to  return  home  in  the  winter.  The  General 
^Secretary  asserted  that,  through  the  exchange  of  in- 
ternational cards,  most  of  the  Italians  had  entirely 
ceased  "blacklegging,"  formerly  common  with  them. 
They  now  usually  uphold  the  foreign  scale  of  wages. 
He  wished  to  have  a  similar  international  understand- 
ing established  with  the  American  Building  Trades 
unions. 

To  what  extent  such  an  arrangement  would  affect 

194 


GENOA    AND  TURIN 

either  the  Italian  working-men  or  ourselves  cannot 
be  said  off-hand.  Of  all  the  immigration  from  Italy 
coming  to  us,  the  proportion  from  the  northern  prov- 
inces is  hardly  a  twelfth.  On  a  map  of  Italy  hanging 
on  a  wall  in  the  Building  Trades  offices  were  drawn 
many  little  circles  showing  where  local  unions  exist- 
ed throughout  the  country.  About  Turin,  Milan,  and 
other  cities  of  the  north,  they  were  as  thick  as  bird- 
shot  fired  from  a  gun.  But  about  Florence  they  were 
few,  and  in  southern  Italy  hardly  one  appeared.  The 
books  of  the  union  made  the  contrast  for  the  different 
parts  of  the  kingdom  even  worse.  The  national  union 
had  no  branches  in  Calabria  or  Sicily,  whence  a  great 
majority  of  our  immigrants  come.  It  would  appear, 
therefore,  that  the  whole  question  of  our  organiza- 
tions not  receiving  union  building  -  trades  Italians 
into  them,  with  the  alleged  grievances  of  the  Italians 
against  us  growing  out  of  it,  is  almost  purely  talk. 
This  suspicion  of  a  wrong  somewhere  arose  originally 
from  the  ruck  of  indefinite  and  unfounded  charges 
drawn  up  by  political  and  book-worm  Socialists  in 
America  and  Italy  hunting  for  a  grievance  against 
American  trade-unionism. 

But  scant  forty-eight  hours  were  left  me  at  Paris  to 
make  preparations  for  the  homeward  voyage.  Our 
party  of  five,  reunited,  took  an  express  train  for  Havre, 
Friday,  October  i,  and  here  is  our  steamship  now, 
October  8,  in  sight  of  the  lights  of  New  York  Harbor. 
But  quarantine  and  customs  regulations  are  to  hold  us 
back  from  landing  until  to-morrow.  Ship-engineering 
and  navigation  have  done  their  best  to  finish  our  ocean 


LABOR   IN    EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

journey  with  speed ;  the  inefficiencies  of  departmental 
administration,  which  fails  to  operate  at  night,  as  rail- 
way and  steamship  companies  of  course  do,  are  the 
cause  of  lengthening  the  voyage  by  one  more  uncom- 
fortable night.  Science  and  private  management  here 
score  against  governmental  red-tape  and  bureaucratic 
rigidity. 

The  four-months'  trip  done,  reflections  upon  it  are 
in  order.  Do  I  return  a  better  American?  Is  the 
American  labor  movement  "ahead  of  the  world"? 
What  do  I  think  of  European  Socialism  ?  Do  I  bring 
back  suggestions  for  social  improvements  ?  What  of 
the  movement  in  Germany  ?  in  Hungary  ?  in  France  ? 
in  Italy  ?  in  England  ?  What  is  the  general  tendency 
of  the  working  -  class  ideals  in  Europe  ?  And  what 
as  to  the  leaders  whose  names  stand  for  certain 
tendencies?  Etc.,  etc.?  Already  questions  such  as 
these  have  been  sent  me  oversea.  I  may  expect 
many  more,  some  asking  for  details,  in  the  next  few 
weeks.  And  then  my  friends  the  reporters  I  may 
count  upon  as  having  queries  no  other  class  of  men 
ever  put  to  me.  In  reply,  I  have  to  say  that  the  boxes 
of  books,  pamphlets,  reports,  etc.,  which  I  bring  back 
with  me  must  be  drawn  upon  to  some  extent  in 
answering  questions  in  detail.  Besides,  various  notes 
are  yet  to  be  gone  over  and  digested.  I  feel  I  have 
yet  something  to  say  about  the  great  trip.  So  I  greet 
my  kindly  readers  with  a  grasp  of  the  hand,  and  tell 
them  I'll  not  bid  them  adieu  until  I  shall  have  further 
summarized  for  their  consideration  some  of  .the  general 
facts  and  impressions  I  gained  abroad. 

196 


PLAIN   WATER  AND   PURE  AIR  AT  A   PREMIUM 

WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  October  19,  1909. 

ALL  Americans  who  travel  in  Europe  become  revo- 
lutionists. They  revolt  in  spirit  and  words  against 
the  almost  general  antipathy  to  plain  water  and  pure 
air,  against  the  universal  tipping  system,  against  the 
European  theatre,  and  against  the  colossal  blunder,  J 
from  start  to  finish,  of  the  European  railroad.  In  his 
indictment  of  European  conditions,  the  American  citi- 
zen imbued  with  the  teachings  of  the  fathers  of  our 
Republic  may  have  a  series  of  further  counts,  but  on 
those  just  enumerated  even  the  half-Europeanized 
travelling  Americans  I  happened  to  meet  seemed  all  to 
agree. 

The  absence  of  the  common  use  of  water  results 
from  monopolies  of  water  -  sources,  conspiracies  of 
publicans,  from  a  lack  of  plumbers'  supplies,  from 
a  misconception  of  the  word  "bath,"  and  from  pure 
ignorance.  Since  none  of  these  causes  are  in  full 
operation  in  his  own  country,  the  American  has  had 
opportunity  afforded  him  to  exercise  a  reasonable 
liberty  in  drinking,  washing,  swimming,  and  bathing. 

There  really  was  something  of  a  revolution  in  Eng- 
land twenty-five  years  ago  which  brought  about  the 
establishment  of  a  public  water-supply  in  many  munic- 

197 


: 


LABOR    IN    EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

ipalities  and  small  towns  where  previously  there  ex- 
isted either  an  insufficient  company  service  or  merely 
the  old-fashioned  wells.  To  accomplish  this  change 
required  much  agitation,  including  a  vast  deal  of  radi- 
cal writing.  Some  of  the  booklets  of  the  Fabian  Social- 
ists dealt  with  the  idea  of  a  public  water-supply  as  if 
it  must  be  linked  up  with  Socialism,  and  when  subse- 
quently town  after  town  established  its  own  water  de- 
partment, the  Fabians  hailed  the  work  as  a  step  for- 
ward to  their  ideal  State.  But  inasmuch  as  we  in 
America  had  long  been  accustomed  to  look  on  "city" 
water  as  merely  a  feature  of  our  common  sanitation, 
its  Socialism  was  no  more  obvious  to  us  than  are  our 
public  schools.  When  London  only  a  few  years  ago 
abolished  its  old  parochial  and  borough  systems  and 
centralized  the  supply  in  a  water  board,  it  began  doing 
what  New  York  had  done  for  nearly  a  century. 

However",  England's  water  revolution  is  incomplete. 
Many  of  its  towns  with  from  five  to  ten  thousand  in- 
habitants have  to-day  no  public  system  in  the  Amer- 
ican sense.  Running-water  on  tap  from  house-pipes 
is  rare  as  compared  with  America.  Questioned  on 
this  point,  an  English  fellow-passenger,  pointing  out 
from  the  car  window  whole  farm  villages,  asserted  that 
not  one  of  them  had  a  water-piping  system.  Many 
American  tourists  and  some  Englishmen  have  assured 
me  that  they  had  never  seen  running  water  in  an 
English  hotel  or  boarding-house  bedroom.  More 
than  one  bath-tub  in  a  London  "lodging  and  board- 
residence"  establishment  is  rarely  to  be  looked  for. 
Only  the  new  hotels,  except  those  advertising  "luxu- 

198 


WATER    AND    AIR   AT   A   PREMIUM 

nous  appointments,"  have  more  than  one  bath-room 
on  a  floor,  though  there  may  be  several  bath-tub  com- 
partments in  one  big  room.  Being  told  that ' '  even  the 
working-man"  nowadays  wants  a  bath-tub  on  moving 
into  a  new  cottage  or  apartment,  on  visiting  some  of 
the  municipal  or  building  society  dwellings,  I  naturally 
looked  for  the  counterpart  of  the  neat,  convenient,  and 
well-fitted-up  bath-room  to  which  so  many  of  our  own 
wage  earners  are  accustomed  when  living  at  the  Amer- 
ican standard,  and  what  was  shown  me  was  in  some 
places  a  tub  sunk  in  the  kitchen  flooring  and  covered 
with  a  trap-door,  and  in  others  a  sort  of  closet  with  a 
cold-water  faucet  near  the  ceiling  for  a  shower,  the 
cement  flooring  answering  for  a  tub.  In  a  small  num- 
ber of  instances  there  was  a  real  bath-room.  Usually 
the  bath  was  mentioned  as  an  innovation,  a  matter  of 
public  pride,  a  harbinger  of  a  dawning  civilization 
among  the  working-people.  It  was  a  fact,  it  was  said, 
that  in  some  old  parts  of  London  there  was  not  a 
single  bath-tub  in  an  area  of  blocks. 

In  the  scarcity  of  bath-tubs  a  new  light  is  thrown 
on  the  familiar  picture  of  the  well-to-do  Englishman 
travelling  with  his  portable  tin  tub.  It  is  a  point  in 
evidence,  not  that  the  English  have  the  bathing  habit, 
but  that  as  a  nation  they  lack  the  habit.  A  travelling 
American  would  as  soon  think  of  carrying  with  him  in 
America  a  bed  as  a  bath-tub ;  he  is  sure  to  find  either  at 
any  hotel  or  boarding-house. 

On  the  Continent  the  American  tourists  one  meets 
have  a  fund  of  amusing  stories  to  relate  on  the  subject 
of  the  elusive  bath.  One  man  I  met  was  able  to  sum 

199 


LABOR    IN    EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

up  the  general  facts  of  the  subject  from  the  position  of 
an  expert.  He  was  a  large  manufacturer  of  plumbers' 
supplies  in  one  of  our  Western  cities.  He  said  that  any 
town  of  ten  thousand  inhabitants  in  the  United  States 
employs  more  plumbers  and  buys  more  plumbing  ma- 
terial than  any  city  of  one  hundred  thousand  on  the 
European  Continent.  He  had  "nosed"  around  in 
Paris,  in  his  enthusiasm  for  his  profession  as  sanitary 
engineer,  with  the  result  that  he  wonders  how  that 
city  escapes  a  scourge  of  fevers.  In  view  of  testimony 
of  such  a  scope,  particular  stories  lose  much  of  their 
force.  However,  one  or  two: 

An  acquaintance  of  mine,  on  applying  for  board  in  a 
French  family,  found  in  the  appearance  of  the  apart- 
ment much  promise  of  a  refined  and  otherwise  beau- 
tiful home  life.  "Is  there  a  bath?"  he  ventured. 
"Oh  yes,  monsieur,"  was  the  reply,  "just  across  the 


street." 


The  French  idea  of  a  bath  seems  to  be  that  it  is  an 
elaborate  ceremony  for  a  special  periodic  occasion,  on 
which  superheat,  a  vaporous  atmosphere,  persistent 
scrubbing,  strong  soap,  and  many  big  towels  make  an 
impression  on  skin  accumulations  of  the  recent  but 
indefinite  past. 

A  boarder  at  a  Paris  pension  (better  class  of 
boarding-house)  told  me  that  in  the  three  connecting 
apartments  rented  by  his  landlord  in  a  substantial  and 
well-situated  building  there  was  not  one  bath-tub. 
Recently  a  New  York  gentleman,  on  purchasing  a  fine 
mansion  in  the  Champs  Elysees  quarter,  expended 
nearly  forty  thousand  dollars  in  remodelling  it,  one 

200 


WATER    AND    AIR    AT    A    PREMIUM 

part  of  the  expense  being  the  installation  of  a  bath- 
room, the  first  ever  in  the  house. 

In  the  other  Continental  countries  I  found  nowhere 
the  American  attitude  toward  water  as  a  free  drink  and 
a  personal  purifier.  Of  course,  some  of  the  newest  and 
largest  hotels  have  a  bath  in  connection  with  each 
suite  of  rooms,  but  these  are  houses  of  the  first  order, 
influenced  by  the  demands  from  the  stream  of  wealthy 
tourist  Americans.  But  just  a  little  short  of  these 
hotels  one  obtains  revelations  of  the  European  con- 
ception of  the  bath.  In  Vienna  our  party  stayed  at 
one  of  the  largest  commercial  hotels  in  the  city.  An 
order  for  a  bath  during  our  stay  met  with  but  one  re- 
ply: " Ausser  betrieb"  (not  running).  In  Hamburg 
and  Berlin  the  new  municipal  and  co-operative  work- 
ing-men's tenement-houses  have  some  provision  for 
family  baths,  but  these  were  very  poor,  from  the 
American  standpoint. 

j  In  Italy  what  plumbers'  supplies  one  sees  have  usu- 
ally been  imported,  a  very  large  proportion  from  the 
United  States.  I  can  hardly  refrain  from  giving  some 
of  our  enterprising  manufacturers  by  name  a  passing 
word  of  praise  for  their  share  in  thus  assisting  in 
hydropathically  revolutionizing  Europe. 
r  Am  I  using  too  much  space  on  this  homely  topic  of 
water?  Indeed,  I  think  not.  My  words  are  not  idle 
ones.  I  write  with  a  purpose.  Prevailing  American 
customs  imply  a  great  mission  for  Europe.  I  con- 
sider that  the  very  first  practical  offering  our  people 
can  make  to  suffering  humanity  in  the  Old  World  is  a 
good  lesson  in  our  use  of  plain  water !  In  fact,  if  there 

2OI 


LABOR   IN   EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

is  a  Baron  de  Hirsch  or  a  Carnegie  by  another  name 
at  present  fumbling  over  his  hoard  of  a  hundred  mill- 
ions or  so,  uncertain  as  to  how  to  devote  it  in  the  up- 
lift, let  him  introduce  in  Europe  America's  methods 
of  supplying  to  everybody  water  to  drink,  to  use  in  the 
kitchen,  and  in  which  to  bathe.  Let  him  never  let  up 
in  his  crusade  against  uncleanliness  and  the  miseries 
of  alcohol  until  he  has  pure  running-water  at  a  foun- 
tain at  every  street  corner  and  in  every  household,  in 
every  room  if  necessary,  of  all  backward  Europe. 

One  reason  that  water  in  some  European  countries 
is  not  plentiful  in  proportion  to  the  people's  needs  is 
the  power  the  landlords  wield  in  preventing  the  com- 
munity from  exercising  eminent  domain  over  the 
water-sources  and  establishing  the  works  necessary  to 
a  water-supply.  The  philanthropic  millionaire  could 
help  in  spreading  for  the  benefit  of  the  populations  in- 
terested the  American  legal  principles  applicable  to 
this  problem. 

On  the  subject  of  drinking-water  I  can  write  with 
not  only  deep  feeling  but  considerable  knowledge,  for 
I  pleaded  for  a  drink  of  plain,  not  necessarily  iced,  but 
clean,  cold  water  in  every  place  I  visited  in  Europe. 

Nowhere  in  Europe  did  I  ever  see  a  water-cooler. 
Nowhere  could  the  guest  at  a  hotel  walk  over  to  the 
corner  of  the  office  or  lobby  as  in  an  American  hos- 
telry and  draw  for  himself  a  glass  of  water.  Not  one 
European  sojourner  at  a  hotel  with  whom  I  talked  on 
the  subject — except  the  few  who  had  been  in  America 
— who  knew  of  any  way  of  getting  a  drink  of  water 
other  than  calling  upon  a  servant  to  bring  it — for  a  tip. 

202 


WATER    AND    AIR    AT    A    PREMIUM 

I  have  travelled  a  full  day  and  night  by  rail  with  no 
possibility  of  getting  a  drop  of  water  on  the  entire 
train.  At  a  few  big  stations  bottled  water  was  sold 
meantime  at  excessive  prices.^  At  table,  water  is  the 
last  drink  served,  if  at  all.  One  of  our  party,  a  more  gen- 
eral water-drinker  by  habit,  declared  that  in  England  it 
required  three  requests  of  a  waiter  to  get  a  glass  of  water, 
and  in  Germany  five  orders  and  a  fight.  In  Germany 
and  Austria  at  the  restaurants  it  is  the  rule  to  add  half 
a  mark  (twelve  cents)  to  the  price  of  a  meal  when  the 
guest  drinks  water  only.  The  process  of  obtaining 
a  drink  of  water  from  the  faucet  runs  thuswise.  The 
waiter  asks:  "What  drink,  sir?"  The  guest  replies: 
' '  Fresh  water. ' '  Waiter :  ' '  What  kind  ? "  and  he  rat- 
tles off  a  string  of  bottled  spring  or  manufactured 
waters.  Guest:  "None  of  these — plain  water  from 
the  faucet."  Waiter:  "What's  that?"  A  colloquy 
ensues,  the  waiter  playing  he  is  mystified.  Then  he 
brings  all  the  wine  and  beer  orders  to  the  tables  he 
serves  and  forgets  the  water.  When  this  performance 
is  gone  through  at  every  meal  for  weeks  and  weeks 
in  different  countries,  the  water-drinker  in  the  end 
usually  surrenders  to  the  "system."  It  is  only  when 
a  party  of  lusty-lunged  Americans,  seated  together  at 
a  table,  shout  that  they  will  give  no  other  orders  until 
water  is  produced  that  the  hotelier  acknowledges  de- 
feat. Finally,  when  water  is  served  it  is  in  a  little 
decanter,  not  enough  for  one  person,  with  one  glass 
for  a  party.  Once  in  a  while,  especially  in  Italy,  there 
is  an  exception  to  the  exasperations  of  this  anti-water 
crusade  of  the  publicans.  £n  London  and  Paris  the 

203 


LABOR   IN   EUROPE    AND   AMERICA 

carafe — never  a  pitcher — may  at  times  be  on  the 
table,  but  its  stale  contents  taste  of  smoke. 

A  direct  effect  of  this  scarcity  of  plain  water  in 
European  hotels  and  restaurants  is,  what  the  land- 
lords desire,  a  bottle  of  strong  drink  or  alleged  spring 
water  in  front  of  every  guest  during  a  meal.  A  per- 
son of  ordinary  diffidence,  or  vanity,  has  not  the  nerve 
to  refuse  to  be  imposed  upon  in  this  way.  The  ab- 
stainer is  made  aware  of  the  fact  that  he  is  persona  non 
grata  to  both  waiter  and  landlord,  and  a  black  sheep 
in  the  flock  under  their  charge.  The  absurdity 
of  this  situation  is  heightened  when  the  venders  of 
bottled  water  and  their  agents,  the  hotel  and  res- 
taurant keepers,  systematically  throw  doubts  on  the 
purity  of  the  water  from  city  supplies.  On  this  point 
I  heard  a  physician,  interrogated  in  London,  make  this 
statement:  "The  death-rate,  especially  of  children,  will 
indicate  the  source  of  disease  in  a  public  water-supply, 
if  any  exists.  The  sufficient  reply  to  the  allegations 
as  to  danger  in  the  water  furnished  a  community  is 
the  common  steady  decrease  in  the  death-rate  and 
the  diseases  consequent  upon  impurity  in  drinking- 
water.  In  London,  whose  water-supply  is  decried  by 
the  publicans,  children  drink  only  water,  and  with 
impunity.  On  the  other  hand,  the  dangers  in  the 
indiscriminate  drinking  of  so-called  table  waters  must 
be  obvious  when  one  but  reads  their  labels.  Like 
medicines,  they  are  meant  for  various  purposes." 

When  talking  on  the  subject  of  water  with  Euro- 
peans, I  noticed  frequently  that  their  faces  took  on  a 
blank  look  of  incredulity  when  I  said  that  on  the  table 

204 


WATER    AND    AIR    AT    A    PREMIUM 

in  all  public  eating-places  in  America  there  stands,  as 
one  of  the  accepted  appointments,  a  big  pitcher  of 
cold,  fresh  water;  that  at  the  public  bars  water  is 
served  free,  or  the  customer  may  help  himself;  that 
in  business-houses  and  offices  generally  and  in  many 
public  and  semi  -  public  places  water  is  provided  in  a 
cooler  for  all  who  wish  to  drink.  American  "publi- 
cans** have  not  yet  dreamed  of  "cornering"  water  as 
against  the  thirsty  stranger.  Were  it  attempted  there 
would  be  an  instant  revolt,  and  the  violence  attending 
it  may  be  inferred  from  how  mad  American  travellers 
continually  show  themselves  when  encountering  the 
difficulties  of  getting  a  drink  of  water  while  making 
the  great  tour  of  Europe. 

Throughout  those  parts  of  Europe  I  saw  it  seemed 
that  people  stood  in  dread  and  horror  of  heaven's  pure 
air.  ' '  Hermetically  sealed ! ' '  some  of  our  party  would 
exclaim  as  we  entered  any  enclosure  whatever — busi- 
ness office,  hotel  bedroom,  public  dining-room,  church, 
street-car,  but  especially  the  compartment  of  a  rail- 
way "carriage."  In  the  hotel  chambers  the  bed- 
steads invariably  stood  in  the  farthest  end  from  the 
windows,  the  pillows  in  the  remotest  corner,  and  the 
chambermaid's  last  act  at  night  would  be  to  close 
the  outside  shutters  and  the  windows,  and  let  down 
the  shades,  and  draw  together  the  heavy  dark  cur- 
tains. How  the  clerks  could  get  the  breath  to  keep  at 
work  in  the  business  offices  I  at  times  visited  I  could 
not  see,  every  precaution  being  taken  to  exclude  the 
outside  air.  Occasionally  on  entering  a  street-car  one 
of  our  party  would  let  down  a  window,  to  meet  at  once 

205 


LABOR   IN   EUROPE   AND   AMERICA 

an  opposition  from  shivering  enemies  to  ozone.  At 
night  in  big  cities  I  have  walked  kilometers  past  resi- 
dences without  seeing  a  single  open  window  or  other 
evidence  of  ventilation.  A  highly  educated  European 
wedded  to  an  American  lady  told  me  that  until  his 
marriage  he  had  never  heard  of  people  sleeping  with 
their  bedroom  windows  open.  The  narrow  European 
railway  carriage  compartments  at  night  are  manu- 
factories of  scents  having  the  strength  of  knock-out 
drops.  These  little  dog-kennels  then  have  doors  and 
windows  tightly  shut,  and  woe  betide  the  American 
who  tries  to  open  either  by  the  tenth  of  an  inch.  He 
clashes  immediately  with  immovable  public  opinion. 

The  most  probable  theory  I  heard  advanced  with 
regard  to  this  avoidance  by  the  Continental  nations 
of  air  unadulterated  by  human  contact  was  that  it 
was  the  result  of  their  contest  with  the  inclemencies 
of  climate.  In  the  greater  part  of  Europe  the  weather 
is  damp  and  cool  most  of  the  year.  The  houses  are 
consequently  chilly,  the  price  of  fuel  being  too  high  to 
permit  of  steady  artificial  heating.  Hence  to  save  fuel 
people  clad  themselves  warmly;  and  when  their  apart- 
ments are  heated  they  close  in  the  warmer  and  exclude 
the  cooler  air,  thus  becoming  accustomed  to  an  over- 
breathed  composite  in  which  pure  atmosphere  is  the 
weakest  constituent  element.  But  this  explanation 
hardly  covers  the  whole  ground.  In  Italy  the  night 
air  was  spoken  of  as  miasmatic,  and  hence  to  be 
dreaded.  Whatever  the  origin  of  airophobia,  the 
disease  is  to  Americans  one  of  the  most  remarkable 
among  the  social  phenomena  to  be  observed  in  Europe. 

206 


WATER    AND    AIR    AT    A    PREMIUM 

The  vitiated  air  of  European  theatres  is  but  a  part 
of  their  general  badness.  Exceptions  always,  of 
course.  There  must  be  some  fine  theatres  in  every 
country  in  Europe,  but  I  believe  that  I  saw  a  fair 
average  of  those  open  in  the  months  of  my  trip,  and  I 
was  able  to  see  only  passable  ones  at  the  best.  For 
comfort  to  the  audience,  price  of  admission,  whole- 
someness  in  the  plays,  compensation  to  actors  and  em- 
ployes— in  a  word,  as  a  social  institution — the  theatre 
in  Europe  in  general  "can't  hold  a  candle"  to  our 
great,  clean,  progressive  American  places  of  amuse- 
ment. The  auditorium  of  the  Continental  theatres  or 
opera-houses,  with  its  three  or  four  galleries  of  stuffy 
loges  is  the  remotest  extreme  from  the  prevailing 
American  construction,  the  aim  of  which  is  a  view  qf 
the  stage  for  every  one  in  the  audience,  a  circulation 
of  fresh  air,  a  democratic  opposition  to  the  exclusive- 
ness  of  caste  and  safety  in  case  of  accident.  When  I 
went  to  the  theatre  or  opera  in  any  city  I  selected  the 
best  performances  at  the  moment  on  the  boards. 
Nearly  all  I  saw  were  wretchedly  bad,  morally  and 
artistically — bad  to  a  degree  intolerable  to  American 
audiences.  In  Vienna  I  partly  sat  through  a  per- 
formance at  the  Prater  Varieties  which  for  silliness  and 
smut  I  never  saw  equalled  in  America;  withal,  the 
.play  was  presented  with  actors  and  scenery  of  about 
the  grade  of  a  ten-cent  barker's  show  at  Coney  Island. 
In  Rome,  at  the  National  Theatre,  one  of  the  principal 
houses,  an  operetta  given  by  a  numerous  company, 
the  scenes  of  which  were  laid  in  the  United  States, 
was  so  ludicrously  bad,  in  costumes  and  characters, 

207 


LABOR    IN    EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

acting  and  singing,  that  it  drew  tears  of  laughter  from 
the  Americans  in  the  audience.  I  mention  these  two 
performances  but  as  examples.  Except  at  one  house 
in  Berlin,  the  vaudeville  I  saw  was  uniformly  far  below 
the  American  average. 

/  But,  the  critical  reader  may  inquire : '  *  Is  this  a  labor 
question?"  The  answer  must  be  that  it  is,  from 
several  points  of  view.  To  enable  the  inquirer  to  see 
that  it  is,  his  attention  is  called  to  the  fact  that  one  of 
the  leading  working-men's  societies  in  New  York  has 
a  standing  committee  which  visits  the  various  local 
theatres  and  passes  upon  the  fitness  of  the  plays  to  be 
visited  by  the  parents  and  children  who  make  up  the 
masses.  Here  is  recognized  the  principle  that  the 
wage  workers,  who  so  greatly  need  wholesome  amuse- 
ment, demand  what  is  best  from  the  stage,  which  not 
infrequently  is  the  people's  only  source  of  social  in- 
struction— a  combination  of  college  and  church.  The 
majority  both  of  actors  and  audience  are  wage  workers 
of  some  grade.  The  popularity,  degree  of  develop- 
ment, and  standards  of  morality  of  the  presentations 
of  the  American  theatre  reflect  the  ideas  of  the  bulk 
v  of  our  people — and  these  are  the  workers. 

In  drawing  comparisons  between  certain  European 
and  American  manners  and  customs  I  have  constantly 
in  mind  the  influence  of  the  people  in  general  upon  the 
development  of  society  in  the  two  worlds.  There  is 
always  one  difference  to  be  kept  in  mind:  in  the 
United  States  "we  are  the  people";  in  Europe  "the 
people"  are  still  often  regarded  by  the  hereditary 
dominant  classes  as  mere  hewers  of  wood  and  drawers 

208 


WATER    AND    AIR    AT    A    PREMIUM 

of  water.  The  higher  wages  paid  and  better  condi- 
tions in  America  are  the  result  of  no  accident;  they 
are  largely  the  acquisitions  of  bodies  of  men  who  as- 
pire to  them  and  know  how  to  struggle  for  them.  So 
also  the  character  of  the  American  masses  stands  re- 
vealed in  American  institutions.  That  character,  I 
believe,  I  see  in  clear  and  direct  relation  with  pop- 
ular education  as  to  such  matters  as  the  proper  use  of 
water  and  air  and  also  with  the  influence  of  society  upon 
the  morals  of  the  stage.  I  can  go  further  in  venturing 
an  opinion:  it  is  that  very  probably  the  American 
wage  workers'  conception  of  the  future  perfected  so- 
cial organization  differs  from  the  ideal  state  of  the 
Socialists  because  of  his  superior  advantages  over  the 
European  working  man  as  a  judge  of  what  constitutes 
beneficent  social  development. 
14 


JL 


/THE  OPPRESSED  MASSES  IN  EUROPE 

WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  October  26,  1909. 

INQUIRIES  reach  me  from  various  sources  in  Amer- 
ica relative  to  the  conditions  of  the  working-classes  in 
Europe.  The  questions  as  put  are  not  easily  an- 
swered. They  are  nearly  all  too  general,  and  in  re- 
plying to  them  I  can  give  for  the  most  part  either 
impressions  only  or  my  view  of  facts  as  seen  broadly. 
Naturally,  however,  when  in  my  own  special  field  of 
labor  organization  I  feel  the  more  sure  of  all  the 
grounds  for  any  of  my  statements. 

In  the  letter  I  wrote  after  being  in  England  only 
a  week  I  spoke  of  coming  in  contact  there  with  "a 
social  atmosphere,  situation,  and  conflict  an  ocean 
apart  from  ours"  in  America.  This  sense  of  being  in 
another  world,  and  again  another,  and  still  another, 
came  upon  me  as  I  travelled  from  country  to  country. 
Under  each  Government  there  appeared  a  new  set  of 
social  problems  that,  for  the  time  at  least,  were  upper- 
most, reflecting  the  passing  stage  of  the  political, 
religious,  or  economic  development  of  the  people 
affected.  In  all  countries  necessarily  the  deeper 
questions  affecting  wealth,  its  production  and  distri- 
bution, formed  a  common  theme  for  discussion.  As- 
sociated with  the  privileges  of  wealth,  in  the  eyes  of 

210 


THE    OPPRESSED    MASSES    IN    EUROPE 

the  classes  in  revolt,  are  the  hereditary  privileges  of 
the  " detainers  of  wealth"  both  in  social  life  and  law- 
making;  that  is,  caste  in  Europe  signifies  not  only 
social  exclusiveness,  but  whatever  of  feudalism  has 
not  been  abolished. 

To  the  American  it  is  astonishing  how  much  vested 
power  remains  in  the  hands  of  the  ''upper  classes"  of 
Europe.  In  nearly  all  countries  to  be  a  Republican — 
or  the  same  thing,  a  Democrat — is  to  be  a  "'malcon- 
tent." The  fundamental  articles  of  political  faith  to 
the  American  citizen  are  regarded  by  rank  and  wealth 
in  the  Old  World  as  social  heresies.  To  be  "loyal  to 
the  King,"  or  Kaiser,  or  Emperor,  is  the  test  of  a 
"faithful  subject."  Hence,  the  closely  knit  rings  of 
the  titled  nobility,  with  their  hordes  of  dependents, 
parasites,  and  imitators,  are  ranged  against  the  rising 
mass  of  the  people. 

In  the  German  army,  for  example,  are  nearly  thirty 
thousand  officers.  Few  of  them  can  afford  to  cham- 
pion the  cause  of  the  "lower  orders  of  society."  From 
their  supercilious  bearing  in  public  and  from  common 
reports  as  to  their  class  prejudices  and  manner  of  life, 
precious  few  ever  think  of  doing  so.  The  working- 
classes  regard  them  as  fomenters  of  war,  allies  of  the 
titled  aristocrary,  willing  servants  of  the  capitalists  in 
time  of  labor  disputes,  and  enemies  of  the  social  prog- 
ress that  comes  through  peace.  The  very  fact  that 
marriage  is  forbidden  to  a  German  army  officer  unless 
he  or  his  intended  wife  has  a  stated  income,  aside  from 
his  pay,  "sufficient  to  maintain  one  of  his  rank,"  points 
to  snobbery,  parasitism,  and  fortune-hunting.  Thus 

211 


LABOR    IN    EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

from  every  point  of  view  the  German  army  officers 
form  one  of  the  main  buttresses  to  the  feudal  concep- 
tion of  society  as  against  the  democratic — or  Ameri- 
can— system.  Between  the  commissioned  officer  and 
the  common  soldier  is  an  immeasurable  chasm.  On 
contemplating  it  the  observer  learns  what  is  signified 
in  Europe  by  the  word  "caste." 

The  hatred  toward  the  socially  privileged  classes  en- 
tertained by  the  masses  in  monarchical  countries  is 
voiced  just  as  frequently  in  condemning  their  hered- 
itary class  powers  as  their  hereditary  wealth.  Their 
very  titles,  forever  paraded  before  the  public,  nause- 
ate democracy.  The  democratic  newspapers  boycott 
not  only  these  titles,  but  also  mention  of  the  comings 
and  goings  of  their  vainglorious  bearers.  It  is  to  be 
remembered  that  the  German  soldier  is  such  by  com- 
pulsion; he  has  not,  like  the  American  soldier,  volun- 
tarily taken  on  his  uniform,  nor  are  the  officers,  as  are 
more  than  half  in  our  army,  promoted  from  the  ranks 
or  transferred  from  civil  life.  Similarly  the  high  posts 
in  the  public  service,  instead  of  being  the  gifts  of  the 
people,  are  still  frequently  rewards  to  favorites  of 
powerful  families.  With  this  fact  comes  the  insistence 
upon  social  distinctions  by  the  well  placed,  distinctions 
carried  by  a  pettiness  of  spirit  into  the  commonest 
relations  of  life.  In  Germany  "Herr  Professoren" 
and  "Frau  Doctorinnen,"  and  in  Italy  "  Commen- 
datore"  and  "Cavalieri,"  are  thicker  than  "Colonels" 
in  Kentucky,  with  the  difference  that  they  expect  to 
be  taken  seriously  as  "upper  class "  social  luminaries. 
In  England  the  habit  of  calling  a  salaried  man  in 

212 


THE    OPPRESSED    MASSES    IN    EUROPE 

a  commercial  house  by  his  surname,  " Johnson,"  or 
"Bobbs,"  or  "Smith,"  while  the  youngest  scion  of  a 
stockholder  is  "Mr.,"  indicates  the  subtleties  of  caste 
that  for  a  lifetime  may  irritate  a  man  with  a  man's 
rights  and  feelings. 

In  France  it  is  not  only  servants  who  are  expected 
to  address  the  upper-caste  individual  in  the  third 
person  "Monsieur"  instead  of  "you."  The  janitors 
of  Paris  have  struck  against  this  custom  of  the  late 
empire.  In  Great  Britain  non-payment  of  members  of 
Parliament  by  the  State  is  a  negation  of  the  rights 
of  the  masses  of  wage  earners  to  be  represented  by 
men  from  their  own  ranks.  To  a  prevailing  measure 
the  House  of  Commons  is,  as  commonly  observed,  a 
gentlemen's  club — the  word  " gentleman"  to  be  taken 
in  the  English  sense  of  a  high-caste  man,  and  not  in 
the  American  sense  of  a  manly  man.  The  first, 
second,  third,  and  fourth  class  cars  on  European  rail- 
ways do  not  merely  indicate  varying  costs  in  a  journey ; 
they  mark  off  strata  in  society.  The  fact  that  army 
officers  and  certain  high-grade  government  function- 
aries have  the  right  to  travel  in  first-class  cars  at  third- 
class  rates  is  used  by  the  democrats  to  illustrate  the 
parasitic  privileges  of  aristocrary  in  general.  I  wit- 
nessed an  instance  in  which  two  respectable-looking 
women  with  a  child  were  objected  to  on  entering  a 
second-class  car  by  a  haughty  and  overbearing  man, 
though  they  apologized  for  taking  the  last  seats  in  the 
compartment.  "They  are  servants,"  he  said,  as  if 
they  were  animals.  "They  have  no  right  to  be  seated 
with  us."  The  habitual  tone  of  the  conservative 

213 


LABOR    IN    EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

European  Press  when  dealing  with  social  questions 
suggests  the  idea  that  the  wage  workers  are  the  de- 
pendent wards  of  the  employing  class ;  therefore  the 
assertion  of  the  latter  of  their  supposed  rights  is  a 
form  of  treason.  The  street-cars  of  Amsterdam  and 
other  European  cities  have  first  and  second  class 
compartments.  The  one  is  empty  or  nearly  so,  the 
other  jammed. 

In  America  we  are  taught  that  all  citizens  should 
have  equal  rights,  and  that  the  man  who  will  not 
stand  up  for  his  rights  is  unworthy  of  citizenship ; 
in  Europe,  powerful,  if  not  in  all  countries  the  domi- 
nant, elements  of  society  defend  the  rights  of  kings  as 
divine,  advise  the  poor  to  be  satisfied  in  "the  station 
in  which  God  has  placed  them" ;  they  also  teach  that 
the  separation  of  Church  and  State  is  a  sacrilege,  and 
assume  that  the  aggressive  upward  movement  of  the 
masses  is  a  peril  to  society. 

i  This  difference  in  the  prevailing  sentiment  toward 
'democracy  I  regard  as  the  first  point  to  be  made  in 
comparing  the  conditions  of  the  wage  workers  in  Eu- 
rope and  America.  A  complete  change  in  this  respect 
must  be  the  forerunner  in  Europe  to  a  general  social 
progress.  More  than  any  other  factor,  the  labor  or- 
ganizations are  working  this  change.  They  are  evolv- 
ing a  "triumphant  democracy." 

2 .  The  political  disabilities  of  the  European  working- 
classes  also  mark  the  incompleteness  of  the  abolition 
of  serfdom.  As  in  the  feudal  times,  power  in  most 
countries  is  in  a  large  measure  still  in  the  hands  of  a 
set  of  hereditary  or  propertied  bosses,  whatever  their 

214 


THE    OPPRESSED    MASSES    IN    EUROPE 

titles.  In  Hungary,  on  account  of  the  property  quali- 
fications, not  one  wage  worker  in  twenty  has  a  vote. 
Hungarian  working-men  who  have  been  in  the  United 
States  and  have  returned  to  their  native  country  can, 
from  their  own  experience,  make  comparisons  between 
the  two  governments  on  the  points  affecting  the  wage 
workers  as  citizens.  Those  I  met  invariably  began  by 
showing  the  differences  in  the  suffrage.  The  senti- 
ments of  the  masses  have  but  a  small  influence  on  the 
Hungarian  Government.  Their  efforts  through  labor 
organizations  to  promote  their  welfare  are  constantly 
hindered  by  interferences  from  the  authorities.  The 
common-school  question,  long  ago  settled  in  the 
United  States  favorably  to  the  working-classes,  who 
were  capable  of  protecting  their  own  interests  through 
the  ballot,  cannot  be  grappled  with  by  the  Hungarian 
working-people  because  they  are  without  the  ballot. 
Four-fifths  of  the  so-called  public  elementary  schools  of 
that  country  are  still  denominational. 

The  average  Englishman  would  probably  maintain 
that  while  Hungary  represents  the  lowest  level  of 
European  society  with  respect  to  the  citizen's  rights  in 
voting  and  to  a  free  schooling,  England  is  at  the  high- 
est level  or  very  nearly  the  highest.  But  in  the  larger 
English  cities  from  25  to  40  per  cent  of  the  wage 
workers  have  no  vote  on  any  public  question  what- 
ever. They  fail  in  residential,  tax-paying,  or  other 
qualifications.  A  working-man,  in  all  other  ways 
qualifying,  may  lose  his  vote  for  two  years  by  remov- 
ing from  one  municipality  to  another  only  a  few  miles 
away.  Plural  voting  gives  property  an  advantage 

215 


LABOR   IN   EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

over  mere  man.  The  distribution  of  seats  in  Parlia- 
ment is  by  no  means  yet  exempt  from  rotten  borough 
features.  Apart  from  voting  for  Members  of  Parlia- 
ment and  City  and  County  Councilmen,  the  masses  of 
English  voters  have  no  direct  influence  over  public 
officials.  The  democrats  among  them  have  to  put  up 
with  the  standing  offence  of  royalty  and  the  lords. 
And  in  England,  to  speak  up  for  free  and  secular  edu- 
cation in  State-maintained  schools  is  to  classify  one's 
self  as  a  radical. 

In  Germany,  however  advanced  the  common 
\  schools,  their  relation  to  "higher"  education  is  not 
*  what  it  is  in  America.  It  is  not  common,  as  here, 
that  wage  workers  procure  a  college  education  with 
direct  connection  with  the  common-school  course.  As 
to  the  effectiveness  of  the  ballot,  if  a  fair  apportion- 
ment of  seats  were  made  the  Socialists  and  other 
radicals  of  Germany  would  at  the  next  election  in- 
crease their  membership  in  the  Reichstag  by  perhaps 
50  per  cent.  Aside  from  voting  for  members  of  the 
Reichstag,  the  German  working-man  has  little  or  no 
influence  on  those  who  govern  him,  except  by  his 
trade-union  activity. 

In  Austria  the  trade-unionist  has  by  the  letter  of 
the  law  no  legal  status.  The  act  of  1870  on  combina- 
tions forbids  workingmen's  unions  to  accumulate 
funds  to  be  used  in  labor  disputes.  Consequently,  the 
trade  unions,  as  labor  organizations,  do  not  pay  strike 
or  lockout  benefits.  The  members  take  care  of  this 
branch  of  their  work  through  "free  organizations," 
associated  with  their  unions  and  administered  by  the 

216 


THE    OPPRESSED    MASSES    IN    EUROPE 

union  officials.  Any  citizen  may  join  these  organi- 
zations of  course,  but  the  union  members  are  the  only 
ones  who  commonly  do.  Members  of  the  union  are 
obliged  to  pay  dues  to  the  "free  organization."  Here 
is  a  legal  farce  impossible  to  the  working-classes  of  the 
United  States.  It  marks  one  of  the  widest  differences 
between  the  conditions  of  the  workers  in  our  own 
country  and  conditions  to  be  found  in  Europe. 

The  European  working-man's  identification  book  is 
a  badge  of  his  still  existing  serfhood.  While  in  Amer- 
ica any  one  may  freely  roam  the  country  over,  in  most 
countries  in  Europe  the  laborer  must  be  prepared  to 
produce  his  "legitimation"  book  on  demand  of  the 
police  or  on  applying  for  employment.  At  the  Paris 
Congress  of  the  International  Secretariat  one  of  the 
protests  drawn  up  related  to  the  arbitrary  action  of  the 
Prussian  police  n  turning  ba.ck  at  the  frontier  Aus- 
trian laborers  going  to  seek  work  in  Prussian-Germany, 
or  in  imposing  upon  them  both  entrance  and  police 
taxes.  In  Italy  the  laborer's  book,  besides  giving  his 
character  as  a  workman,  as  seen  by  his  successive 
employers,  states  whether  he  has  ever  been  in  prison 
for  any  cause  whatever  for  more  than  ten  days.  The 
"labor  agitator,"  subject  to  police  hounding,  is  thus 
liable  to  be  effectually  squelched. 

It  is  through  the  exercise  of  a  man's  rights — his 
personal  rights  and  his  rights  as  a  citizen — that  in  time 
he  may  attain  to  their  full  extent  his  economic  rights. 
Hence,  in  comparing  laboring-class  conditions  in  Eu- 
rope with  those  in  America,  I  have  placed  first  some 
consideration  of  the  extent  to  which  what  we  regard 

217 


LABOR   IN   EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

as  the  fundamental  rights  of  men  are  exercised  in  the 
Old  World  and  in  the  New. 

jXAmericans  have  manhood  suffrage.  By  it  they 
may,  if  they  will,  amend  Federal  or  State  constitutions, 
change  all  their  lawmakers  and  office-holders,  and 
speedily  bring  the  laws  up  to  the  mental  and  moral 
level  of  the  majority.  Not  even  in  England  can  the 
masses  do  as  much.  The  House  of  Lords,  among 
other  obstacles,  stands  in  the  way.  If  royalty  is  not 
regarded  as  one  of  the  obstacles  it  is  because  royalty 
effaces  itself.  The  British  nation  as  a  whole  seems 
disposed  to  tolerate  the  conventional  figurehead  of 
kingship,  so  long  as  it  remains  nothing  more. 

Americans  exercise  the  right  of  devoting  their  life- 
time to  their  own  pursuits  and  purposes.  On  the 
Continent  of  Europe  every  man  in  the  masses  must 
give  up  years  of  his  life  to  compulsory  service  in  the 
army.  Under  some  governments  the  poorer  and  more 
ignorant  and  helpless  the  man  the  longer  is  his  term 
of  service.  Exemptions  go  to  the  favored  classes. 
An  endless  stream  of  wrongs  and  infamies  flows  from 
militarism  as  carried  out  by  the  ruling  classes  in  the 
great  powers. 

^X  Americans  are  n°t  taxed  to  support  religious  de- 
nominations to  which  they  are  opposed.  This  can- 
not be  said  of  the  "subjects"  of  the  British  Govern- 
ment. State  religions,  or  the  usual  alliances  between 
Church  and  State,  have  been  one  of  the  prime  causes 
of  the  revolutionary  sentiment  throughout  Europe. 
y  Americans  enjoy  the  right  to  at  least  an  elementary 
education.  The  praises  of  the  American  school  sys- 

218 


THE    OPPRESSED    MASSES    IN    EUROPE 

tern  are  heard  among  the  wage  workers  in  all  countries 
of  Europe.  The  national  schools  of  England  as  com- 
pared with  the  common  schools  of  America  are  not 
equally  in  the  service  of  all  the  people.  Differences 
arise  from  sectarianism,  caste,  organization,  and  con- 
ception of  the  purposes  of  the  schools.  To  hear  an 
Italian  speaking  in  broken  English  acquired  in  Amer- 
ica of  the  American  school  system  and  contrasting 
Italy's  methods  with  America's,  is  to  hear  a  lesson 
upon  the  rights  of  children,  as  much  to  be  relished  by 
Americans  as  it  should  be  profitable  to  Italians. 
^/American,  working-men  assume  and  assert  the  right 
of  the  organization  of  labor  as  a  matter  of  course.  In 
nearly  all  Continental  countries  the  right  is  hampered 
with  police  or  other  regulations  against  which  trade- 
unionists  rebel.  In  some  countries,  as  in  Hungary 
and  Austria,  the  right  is  only  encompassed  by  trick 
and  subterfuge.  In  Italy,  as  in  Germany,  it  has  been 
gained  and  is  maintained  only  through  constant  strug- 
gles. Labor  organizations  in  France,  legitimate  only 
since  1884,  fight  constantly  against  compulsory  incor- 
poration and  similar  attacks  upon  a  just  liberty. 
^/ Americans  exercise  the  right  of  free  assembly. 
What  this  means  seems  difficult  sometimes  for  foreign- 
bred  naturalized  American  citizens  to  understand. 
But  in  actual  practice,  immigrants  to  this  country 
from  Russia,  Spain,  Austria,  Hungary,  Germany,  and 
Ireland  can  bear  witness  to  America's  larger  liberty 
in  this  respect.  Nowhere  in  the  world  may  men 
assemble  freely  to  mob  a  man's  house  or  person  or  to 
preach  violent  revolution;  but  in  America  men  may 

219 


LABOR    IN    EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

meet  and  devise  overturning  the  Government  and  ex- 
pelling from  office  its  heads  by  ballot  and  not  lose 
their  standing  as  conservative  citizens.  In  the  coun^ 
tries  named  they  would  be  classed  as  dangerous 
extremists. 

^Americans  practice  the  right  of  movement  from  place 
to  place  without  let  or  hindrance.  This  is  not  known 
to  the  laboring-classes  in  Europe.  A  laboring-man 
in  America  when  travelling  may  feel  that  he  is  a  man ; 
in  Europe  he  is  presumably  a  possible  vagrant,  pauper, 
or  subject  for  police  surveillance. 

^Americans  have  a  right  to  trial  by  a  jury  of  their 
peers  that  is  rarely  known  to  working-men  in  Euro- 
pean countries.  Judges  not  elected  by  the  people  are 
harsh  interpreters  of  the  law  when  trying  the  poor 
and  defenceless  if  opponents  are  of  the  privileged 
classes.  The  savage  attitude  of  German  magistrates 
toward  the  Socialists  is  proverbial;  the  severity  of 
English  judges  in  cases  of  poaching  or  similar  petty 
offences  against  property  exhibits  a  settled  principle 
of  putting  defence  of  possessions  above  consideration 
for  human  beings;  the  travesty  of  a  trial  for  Ferrer 
proved  to  what  lengths  monarchy  is  capable  of  going 
in  judicial  or  military  murder  of  its  opponents. 

/  Americans  exercise  a  great,  though  frequently  over- 
looked, right  in  supervising  their  public  servants  and 
making  them  aware  of  the  possibility  of  dismissal  on 
wrong-doing.  In  Europe  members  of  the  titled  aris- 
tocracy may  be  worthless  to  the  community,  flagrantly 
immoral,  opponents  to  general  progress,  self-interested 
promoters  of  war,  social  pests  from  many  points  of 

220 


THE    OPPRESSED    MASSES    IN    EUROPE 

view,  and  still  retain  power  as  lawmakers  and  stand 
as  social  leaders  otherwise. 

i<fAnd,  finally,  Americans  have  constitutionally  guar- 
anteed a  free  Press  and  the  right  of  free  speech. 

The  European  social  reformer  is  often  confused  re- 
garding the  American  political  and  economic  situation 
because  he  cannot  understand  that  much  for  which 
he  has  yet  to  struggle  has  in  this  country  been  accom- 
plished. The  basic  principles  of  liberty  are  here  recog- 
nized in  the  law.  The  principle  of  equality  before  the 
law  is  established.  If  all  the  logical  results  from  these 
principles  do  not  invariably  follow,  the  fault  lies  with 
those  American  citizens  who  do  not  defend  their  rights 
as  free  men  should. 


WAGES  AND  COST  OF  LIVING 

WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  November  2,  1909. 

''WHERE  are  wages  best?"  working-men  ask  me. 
"Other  points  in  favor  of  America  don't  count  for 
much  if  a  man's  earnings  here  can't  bring  him  a  better 
living  than  in  European  countries.  Is  it  true  that  a 
mark  in  Germany  or  a  franc  in  France  will  go  as  far 
as  a  dollar  in  the  United  States?" 

In  reply,  some  examples  of  wages  in  Europe  may 
be  given  and  then  some  description  of  the  circum- 
stances in  the  European  workmen's  situation  as  I 
took  note  of  them.  Precisely  what  the  differences  are 
in  the  cost  of  living  in  the  different  countries  is  a  ques- 
tion involving  many  factors  over  which  sociological 
investigators  and  tariff-wranglers  have  long  disputed. 
What  I  can  give  is  the  result  of  visiting  workmen  in 
their  homes  in  various  cities,  hearing  the  statements 
of  labor  representatives  and  others  as  to  prices  and 
wages,  and  completing  this  sort  of  information  with 
comparisons  of  wage-scales  and  trade-union  reports 
given  me  in  the  countries  I  visited. 

In  the  debates  and  conferences  at  the  British  Trade- 
Union  Congress  at  Ipswich  in  September,  the  national 
trade-union  secretaries  and  other  prominent  delegates 

222 


WAGES    AND    COST    OF    LIVING 

could  hardly  be  expected  to  err  greatly  when  referring 
to  earnings  in  their  own  occupations.  Some  of  their 
statements  are  herewith  given.  Richard  Bell,  M.P., 
of  the  Amalgamated  Society  of  Railway  Servants, 
speaking  of  the  necessity  for  railway  men  in  the  Ips- 
wich district  to  come  into  the  unions,  said  that  while 
working  at  17  shillings  ($4.25)  a  week,  they  had  re- 
fused to  assist  the  union  in  getting  them  an  advance 
of  2  shillings.  It  is  to  be  kept  in  mind  that  the 
English  shilling  is  really  twenty- four  American  cents, 
though  usually  computed  at  twenty-five.  G.  H. 
Roberts,  M.P.,  averred  that  in  some  parts  of  East 
Anglia,  the  eastern-central  part  of  England,  agricultu- 
ral laborers  are  being  paid  12  shillings  a  week.  Will 
Thome,  M.  P.,  mentioned  that  builders'  laborers  in 
Ipswich  were  receiving  4!  pence  (9  cents)  an  hour. 
Men  in  the  audience  called  out,  ''Quite  right,  and 
three  and  one-half  pence,  sir."  A.  G.  Smith,  of  the 
London  Cab  Drivers,  said  public  motor-car  men  re- 
ceived 25  per  cent  on  every  pound  they  took  in,  but 
as  they  had  to  pay  for  their  gasoline,  which  was  often 
wasted,  it  frequently  happened  that  all  they  had  for 
themselves  after  a  fifteen-hour  day  was  2  shillings. 
R.  Da  vies,  of  the  Municipal  Employes,  arguing  for 
a  recognized  minimum  in  all  industries,  quoted  the 
Ipswich  trade-union  minimum  for  builders'  laborers 
as  5  pence  per  hour.  A  resolution  was  adopted  ad- 
vocating minimum  wages  of  30  shillings  for  a  forty- 
eight-hour  week  for  government  workers  in  the  Lon- 
don district,  and  36  shillings  in  the  danger  buildings 
of  the  explosive  factory  in  the  arsenal  at  Woolwich. 

223 


LABOR    IN    EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

These  two  demands,  it  is  to  be  observed,  which  mark 
an  objective  point  above  what  is  paid,  reach  only 
$7.50  and  $9  a  week. 

In  London  the  present  weekly  union  scale  for  men  in 
the  binding  department  in  printing-offices  is  34  shil- 
lings for  fifty-four  hours;  for  cutters,  30  shillings; 
and  for  girl  folders,  15.  In  the  private  shipyards 
doing  naval  work — those  in  the  Tyne,  Clyde,  Mersey, 
Thames,  and  Barrow  districts — the  wages  run  on  the 
average:  Platers,  385.  3^.;  riveters  and  caulkers,  345. 
gd.;  holders -up,  285.  $d.  Government  dockyards 
maximum  pay  is :  Platers,  285.;  riveters  and  caulkers, 
28$.;  holders-up,  255.  The  entire  range  here  is  $6  to 
les^r  than  $9.50. 

•'The  long  hours  worked  in  some  occupations  was 
called  to  the  attention  of  the  Congress.  It  was  said 
by  Alderman  J.  Hayhurst,  J.P.,  of  the  Bleachers' 
Union,  to  be  a  common  thing  for  men  in  the  bleach- 
ing, dyeing,  and  calico-printing  industries  to  work 
twelve  and  fourteen  hours  a  day.  Councillor  G.  T. 
Jackson,  J.P.,  of  the  Tramway  Employes'  Union,  in- 
troduced a  resolution  calling  for  an  eight-hour  lapse 
between  the  end  of  one  day's  work  and  the  beginning 
of  the  next,  and  providing  that  any  one  day  should 
not  be  spread  over  more  than  twelve  hours.  He  told 
of  an  accident  occurring  at  n  P.M.  through  the  ex- 
haustion of  a  man  who  had  begun  work  at  6  A.M. 
E.  Spice,  of  the  London  Watermen,  wanted  twelve 
hours  as  a  maximum  day  for  the  lads  under  eighteen 
working  at  lighterage  on  the  Thames.  A  delegate  of 
the  tailors  stated  that  women  employed  by  a  fashion- 

224 


WAGES    AND    COST    OF    LIVING 

able  Regent  Street  firm  worked  eighty-four  hours  a 
week  for  3  pence  an  hour. 

In  the  foregoing  figures  we  have  for  England  ex- 
amples not  only  of  the  highest  wages  paid  in  some  of 
the  best-organized  trades,  but  also  of  the  rates  current 
in  those  poorly  organized.  In  other  words,  the  range 
covers  the  varying  scales  for  all  wage  workers'  occu- 
pations. Further  quotations  would  carry  but  the 
repetition  of  what  is  a  general  fact.  Earnings  in 
England,  however,  cannot  be  based  on  weekly  wage- 
scales  ;  unemployment,  varying  as  to  the  individuals 
involved,  is  now  so  bad  as  to  be  spoken  of  as  a  settled 
national  feature  in  industry.  The  Inspector-General 
of  the  army  was  quoted  at  Ipswich  as  mentioning  in 
his  last  annual  report  that  ninety  out  of  every  one 
hundred  men  enlisting  in  the  army  had  given  unem- 
ployment as  their  reason  for  becoming  soldiers. 

A  general  survey  of  wages  in  Germany  is  to  be  had 
in  the  tables  giving  the  average  yearly  earnings  as 
reported  under  the  working-men's  insurance  laws. 
The  Correspondenzblatt  of  the  Trade-Union  General 
Commission  for  Germany,  April  18,  1908,  page  55, 
has  one  of  these  tables.  Only  three  or  four  of  the 
trades  average  over  1200  marks  ($300),  at  which 
sum,  according  to  the  law,  begins  the  excess  reckoned 
at  one- third  the  actual  amount.  Most  of  the  aver- 
ages run  less  than  1000  marks  ($250).  These  general 
insurance  statistics  of  wages  may  be  verified  by  union 
scales.  For  instance,  the  Berlin  saddlers'  organiza- 
tion calls  for  27  to  28  marks  a  week;  the  Hamburg 
shipbuilders,  34  to  50  marks;  the  Berlin  plumbers, 
15  225 


LABOR    IN    EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

60  to  70  pfennigs  an  hour  for  a  nine-hour  day,  be  it 
$8  to  $9  a  week.  These  are  among  the  highest  wages. 
The  lowest  are  for  day  laborers,  which  rarely  go  above 
3  marks  a  day  and  sometimes  below  2|  in  a  list  com- 
piled by  the  local  authorities  in  thirty  cities  in  accord- 
ance with  the  insurance  laws. 

In  Austria  and  Hungary  wages  run,  as  seen  by  the 
American  eye,  accustomed  to  dollars,  at  about  equal 
levels  for  the  two  countries,  high  in  big  cities  and  low 
in  agricultural  districts.  The  leading  industry  of  Hun- 
gary is  flour-milling.  Budapest  millers  boasted  to  me 
that  their  mills  were  better  than  those  of  Minneapolis. 
A  few  years  ago,  before  the  workmen  were  organized, 
mill  wages  varied,  one  giving  but  50  cents  a  day  for 
work  that  in  other  mills  brought  80.  The  pay  for 
skilled  millers,  while  more  nearly  uniform,  averages 
now  less  than  the  latter  figure.  In  Budapest,  brick- 
layers, among  the  best-paid  workmen  in  the  building 
trades,  get  $i  to$i.2oa  day.  In  the  winter  they  find 
unskilled  work  at  60  cents.  First-class  carpenter- 
joiners  earn  $1.30  to  $1.90.  Budapest  has  a  thousand 
female  cigar-makers  working  in  the  government  fac- 
tories at  30  to  40  cents  a  day.  Miners  in  North  Hun- 
gary sometimes  attain  to  the  level  of  60  cents. 

The  wages  in  Italy  reach  their  highest  point  in 
Milan,  the  great  modern  commercial  and  industrial 
city  of  the  kingdom.  In  1907  the  following  were  some 
of  the  demands  of  the  unions :  The  painters  and  paper- 
hangers,  a  minimum  of  60  cents,  80  cents,  and  $i  a 
day  (American  money),  eight  and  a  half  hours  in  the 
winter  and  ten  the  rest  of  the  year;  stationary  fire- 

226 


WAGES   AND   COST   OF    LIVING 

men,  9  cents  an  hour;  gold-leaf  workers,  $1.20;  as- 
sistants, 75  cents,  nine  hours;  bookbinders,  10  per 
cent  advance  for  the  men  making  80  cents  a  day, 
15  per  cent  for  hands  making  50  to  80  cents,  22  per 
cent,  for  those  making  30  to  50 ;  masons  and  assistants 
in  the  building  trades,  minimum  per  hour,  9  cents; 
apprentices,  7-*;  laborers,  6;  boys,  4;  lithographers, 
graded,  $8.40,  $7.80,  $7  a  week ;  street-cleaners,  graded, 
78,  72,  67,  60,  45  cents  a  day. 

The  trade  unions  are  much  stronger  in  Milan  than*/ 
elsewhere  in  Italy.  Wages  taper  off  southward,  the 
unions,  of  course,  also  diminishing  in  number  and  im- 
portance. The  building  trades  in  the  south  have  wages 
only  60  to  70  per  cent  of  those  paid  in  Milan,  as  re- 
corded at  the  union  national  headquarters. 

Quotations  from  my  notes  on  union  wage-scales  for 
the  smaller  countries,  such  as  Belgium,  Switzerland, 
and  Bohemia  (the  latter  having  its  own  national  la- 
bor movement),  would  give  slight  variations  of  wages, 
somewhat  between  the  Italian  and  English  or  German 
levels.  As  I  have  said,  the  American  mind,  accus- 
tomed to  make  estimates  in  dollars,  cannot  easily  ap- 
preciate differences  that  to  the  European  workman 
may  appear  considerable.  To  be  told  that  the  police- 
men in  London  get  $6  to  $9  a  week,  in  Paris  $6  to  $8, 
in  Vienna  or  Rome  $5  to  $7,  leaves  the  man  who  has 
acquaintances  on  the  New  York  force  at  $20  and  $30 
only  under  the  impression  that  all  European  police- 
men are  cheap,  an  impression  deepened  after  he  has 
tipped  a  London  policeman  sixpence  for  hunting  a 
cab  for  him  ten  minutes  or  a  Vienna  policeman  five 

227 


LABOR    IN    EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

cents  for  giving  information  as  to  his  baggage  at  a 
railway  station. 

In  Europe  it  is  a  matter  of  great  astonishment  that 
our  women  school-teachers  can  afford  to  make  "the 
grand  tour"  on  their  own  savings.  Scores,  perhaps 
hundreds,  of  our  bright  instructresses  to-day  make  the 
two  ocean  voyages  for  $100,  and  travel  to  London, 
Paris,  the  Rhine,  perhaps  Berlin  and  Rome,  during  six 
or  seven  or  even  ten  weeks,  for  $250  more.  The 
young  European  mechanic  or  laborer,  home  again 
after  two  or  three  years  in  America,  smartly  clothed 
and  flush  in  spending-money,  perhaps  back  to  be  mar- 
ried, is  a  common  subject  for  neighborhood  gossip  in 
Europe,  whether  he  is  the  printer  in  Liverpool,  the 
miner  in  Westphalia,  the  cigar  -  maker  in  Prague,  or 
the  "excavator"  in  Naples.  Such  facts,  elusive  to 
the ycensus-taker.  tell  a  story  of  their  own. 

vThe  printing  trade,  in  all  Europe  at  the  highest 
point  in  union  organization,  affords  a  basis  for  wage 
comparisons.  In  New  York  the  union  weekly  scale 
for  compositors  on  morning  newspapers  is  $31;  on 
book  work,  $21.00.  In  London  the  book  scale  is  39 
shillings  (less  than  $9.50) ;  in  Paris,  the  minimum,  $9; 
in  Milan,  $7  (5.20  lire  per  day) ;  in  Austria  the  towns 
and  cities  are  divided  into  six  classes  for  composi- 
tors' weekly  wages,  running,  respectively,  $4.40,  $4.80, 
$5.20,  $5.60,  $5.80,  and  $6.20;  in  Budapest  the  mini- 
mum scale  is  $4.80.  The  custom  of  paying  the  best 
liands  more  than  the  minimum  scale  is  more  prevalent 
*in  European  countries  than  in  America.  The  briefest 
mention  of  the  printing  business,  with  comparison  of 

228 


WAGES    AND    COST   OF    LIVING 

wages,  requires  notice  of  the  fact  that  machinery,  and 
that  of  the  first  order,  in  the  press  and  composing 
rooms,  is  in  more  common  use  in  America  than  in  any 
European  country.  I  was  shown  through  a  model 
book  and  job  printing-office  in  London  that  had  no 
composing-machines,  and  the  Cologne  Zeitung,  the 
great  daily  newspaper  of  Rhenish  Germany,  has  none. 
Seldom  are  any  seen  in  the  many  co-operative  estab- 
lishments. They  are  rare  in  the  offices  of  Austria, 
Hungary,  and  Italy.  I  am  reliably  informed  that 
more  type  is  set  in  one  daily  newspaper  office  in  a  week 
in  New  York  than  in  all  the  printing-offices  of  Naples. 
That  fact  is  in  agreement  with  the  rule  that  with  high 
wages  in  America  there  is  often  a  low  cost  of  produc- 
tion, coming  from  the  education  and  energy  of  the 
workers,  perfected  machinery,  and  organization  on  a 
large  scale. 

My  facts  indicate  that  money  wages  in  America  in 
many  trades  are  at  least  double  those  paid  abroad. 

But  the  cost  of  living? 

Two  classes  of  writers  and  talkers  may  be  found 
who  assert  that  "one  may  live  in  Europe  on  half  what 
it  costs  in  America."  The  first  of  these  classes  is  the 
employers  of  Europe  as  a  body;  they  are  interested 
in  keeping  their  workmen  with  them,  to  compete  with 
one  another,  besides  being  actuated  by  anti-American 
sentiment  that  calls  for  no  more  than  mention  here. 
The  other  class  is  mostly  made  up  of  well-to-do  Amer- 
ican sojourners  abroad.  The  latter  undoubtedly  find 
several  items  in  their  own  outlay  less  than  in  America, 
among  them  being  personal  service,  objects  of  luxury, 

229 


LABOR    IN    EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

and  their  house-rents.  As  relating  to  themselves  and 
their  social  class,  their  assertions  are  correct,  espe- 
cially as  regards  city  life.  The  European  working- 
classes,  however,  neither  hire  servants  nor  buy  articles 
of  luxury  except  in  rare  cases.  The  struggle  for  a 
barely  decent  living  is  ever  before  them.  Their  neces- 
sary annual  family  " budget"  comprises  plain  and 
cheap  food,  which,  on  the  average,  takes  40  to  65  per 
cent  of  the  entire  outlay,  quarters  in  either  an  "indus- 
trial" or  "slum"  district,  requiring  20  to  35  per  cent, 
and  clothing  10  per  cent  or  more.  These  percentages 
must  be  indefinite,  depending  as  they  do  upon  the 
size  of  the  family,  on  earnings  and  on  climate,  and 
even  on  the  Government.  Mentally  contemplating  the 
many  cities  I  visited,  and  having  in  mind  the  conver- 
sations I  had  with  working-men  who  had  lived  both 
in  Europe  and  America,  I  believe  I  may  assert  that 
whether  the  cost  of  living  in  Europe  or  America  is 
greater  to  the  working-man  depends  entirely  on  the 
standard  of  living  he  adopts  while  in  America.  If  he 
voluntarily  lives  the  life  of  self-denial  in  this  country 
that  he  compulsorily  lived  in  his  native  land,  his  out- 
lay in  money  will  remain  about  the  same.  Even  then 
he  will  hardly  be  able  to  escape  gaining  something 
from  the  superior  supply  of  the  good  things  of  life  in 
America. 

If  I  am  called  on  to  name  one  of  the  good  things 
which  is  conspicuous,  I  reply:  "Our  common  schools 
for  the  workers'  children,"  and  as  I  write  the  words 
I  hear  again  the  enthusiastic  sentiments  on  this  point 
uttered  in  my  presence  by  Italians,  Bohemians,  Aus- 

230 


WAGES    AND    COST   OF    LIVING 

trians,  and  Irishmen.  "To  think,"  they  say,  "your 
country  gives  even  the  school-books  free!" 

Living  is  cheap  to  the  wage  worker  in  Europe  _QnIy 
because  he  does  without  what  in  America  soon__b£- 
comes  a  necessity  to  him — food  in  good  quantity  and 
quality,  presentable  clothes  among  his  aspiring  fellow- 
workmen  and  their  families,  and  a  comfortably  fur- 
nished home  in  quarters  responding  to  his  awakened 
desires  for  equality  with  his  American  neighbors,  and 
in  general  a  larger,  fuller,  and  freer  life. 

"How  often  do  these  people  eat  meat?"  is  a  ques- 
tion the  American  in  Europe  finds  himself  asking  when 
looking  about  among  wage  workers.  Meat  is  usually 
from  25  to  100  per  cent  higher  in  price  than  in  the 
United  States.  Naples  and  vicinity  is  often  spoken 
of  as  offering  plentiful  and  cheap  living.  Within  the 
customs-bonded  district  of  the  port  of  Naples  are  large 
cold-storage  warehouses  whence  meat  is  furnished  to 
vessels  in  the  American  and  Mediterranean  service. 
It  is  American  meat.  If  it  could  be  carted  just  one 
hundred  yards  from  the  warehouse  through  the  gates 
of  the  great  iron  customs  department  fence  into  Na- 
ples, this  meat  could  be  sold  at  from  25  to  50  per 
cent  below  local  prices.  The  warehouse  owners  stand 
ready  to  do  business  with  all  Italy,  furnishing  a  better 
grade  of  meat  at  greatly  reduced  prices,  if  the  tariff 
barrier  were  removed.  This  is  but  a  single  illustra- 
tion of  a  general  fact.  Staple  American  agricultural 
products  —  wheat,  fruits,  cheese  —  in  many  parts  of 
Europe  are  sold  at  lower  than  the  local  prices  or  as 
low.  The  immigrant  coming  to  America  finds  that 

231 


LABOR    IN    EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

if  he  can  buy  in  quantity  (and  in  cases  where  he  need 
not)  his  flour,  fuel,  potatoes,  oil,  sugar,  coffee,  salt — 
the  essentials  for  his  plain  table — all  cost  less  than 
they  ordinarily  do  in  the  land  he  left.  The  cheapness 
and  abundance  of  many  varieties  of  fruits  and  of  our 
melons  and  tomatoes  is  a  surprise  to  him.  Closely 
after  the  most  pressing  necessaries  comes  a  line  of 
things  cheaper  than  in  Europe:  cotton  clothing,  in- 
cluding overalls,  jumpers,  shoes  (the  American  shoe 
has  a  sale  all  over  the  Continent);  newspapers,  the 
cent  buying  twice  to  four  times  the  reading-matter 
contained  in  a  German,  French,  or  Italian  paper.  Ac- 
cess to  good  water  renders  expenditure  for  alcoholic 
drinks  less  necessary.  The  cheapness  of  good  amuse- 
ments in  America  deserves  more  attention  than  has 
been  given  the  subject  by  the  professional  investigator; 
it  is  a  social  factor  having  an  enormous  influence  on 
the  tastes  and  education  of  the  working-class  public. 
The  possibility  of  regarding  outlay  for  amusements 
as  one  of  the  regular  items  in  family  expenses  is  an 
indication  of  the  working-class  standard  of  living. 

How  the  wage  earners  and  their  families  attire 
themselves  is  not  so  much  a  question  of  the  cheap- 
ness of  clothing  as  it  is  of  what  is  left  over  for  this 
purpose  after  provision  has  been  made  for  food,  shel- 
ter, and  other  unavoidable  family  needs.  The  factors 
of  climate,  national  customs,  and  class  standards  must 
also  be  considered.  In  Southern  countries,  where  the 
same  clothes  are  worn  the  year  around,  people  may 
appear  well  in  public  at  half  the  expense  required  in 
America,  in  the  North,  where  there  are  four  seasons. 

232 


WAGES    AND    COST    OF    LIVING 

In  the^ljtoited  Kingdom  the  poor  dress  in  much  the 
sajaarf  clothing  summer  and  winter,  the  large  propor- 
tion of  the  people  in  shabby  clothes  in  the  streets  of 
Dublin,  Manchester,  or  London  giving  an  impression 
to  the  American  observer  of  a  Mvalent  poverty. 

The  masses  make  a  better  appearance  in  Paris  and 
Berlin.  In  Italy  a  young  fellow  may  be  a  dandy  in 
a  straw  hat  and  a  cotton  duck  suit.  Fine  wool  and 
silk  stuffs,  furs,  laces,  and  kid  gloves  cost  less  abroad 
than  in  the  United  States — a  fact,  however,  which 
bears  as  lightly  in  an  inquiry  into  the  conditions  of 
the  masses  as  does  the  tariff  on  the  masterpieces  of  art. 

The  housing  of  the  wage  workers  of  the  various  Eu- 
ropean countries  as  compared  with  that  of  the  same 
class  in  America  would,  in  order  to  bring  out  the  full 
truth,  require  a  long  and  faithful  study.  When  the 
facts  were  ascertained,  the  real  point  remaining  would 
be  how  to  present  them  in  order  to  create  an  exact 
impression  of  the  truth.  Besides,  in  making  compar- 
isons a  difficulty  would  be  in  fixing  an  American  stand- 
ard. Conditions  exist  in  a  few  American  cities,  such 
as  New  York,  Pittsburg,  and  Chicago,  representing  nei- 
ther European  nor  American  standards,  but  what  are 
created  through  the  transition  of  the  most  helpless  of 
our  newly  arrived  immigrants  from  a  state  perhaps 
more  miserable  than  that  in  which  they  lived  in  their 
native  countries  to  a  level  equal  to  the  financially 
lowest  that  is  permanent  among  the  American-born 
citizens.  Looking  at  the  housing  problem  widely,  the 
greatest  fact  in  favor  of  America  is  space.  The  work- 
ing-man in  the  country  towns  and  in  the  cities  smaller 

233 


LABOR    IN    EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

than  those  in  which  the  foreign  population  is  con- 
gested can  rent  or  perhaps  buy  a  separate  home.  In 
general,  Europe  does  not  give  this  opportunity.  For 
example,  Bremen  is  the  only  considerable  city  in  Ger- 
many which  has  small  single-family  houses  adapted 
to  the  needs  of  working-people.  Only  the  big  tene- 
ment-house, except  in  rare  cases,  is  to  be  found  in 
other  cities.  The  wage  earner  in  them  is  regarded  as 
permanently  a  rent-payer,  an  animal  in  a  stall  in  a 
five,  six,  or  seven  story  stable.  No,  not  one  animal  in 
one  stall  —  not  so  good  as  that ;  whole  families  or  a 
herd  of  lodgers  live  in  one  of  the  stalls.  The  doub- 
ling-up  of  families  of  relatives,  the  keeping  of  lodgers, 
the  hiring  of  a  small  apartment  by  several  young  per- 
sons, such  devices  for  distributing  among  many  per- 
sons the  burdens  of  rent  must  be  general  in  cities  where 
apartments  are  made  the  landlord's  investment  and 
few  small  homes  are  built  to  sell  the  man  with  a  small 
purse.  The  barracks-like  houses  of  the  German  cities 
are  planned  so  as  to  accommodate  people  in  compara- 
tively easy  circumstances  in  the  desirable  apartments 
of  the  front,  up  to  the  fourth  story,  while  the  base- 
ment and  the  small  rear  and  topmost  apartments  go 
to  the  swarm  of  folks  living  on  low  wages.  Berlin 
has  been  called  "The  city  that  wears  a  dickey,"  since 
its  imposing  streets  of  big  dwelling-houses  have  the 
best  apartments  on  view  to  the  front,  behind  being 
shabbiness  and  the  general  unattractiveness  of  things 
unseen.  In  the  northern  district  of  Berlin  is  the  new 
"working-men's  quarter,"  with  broad  streets,  window- 
garden  houses,  and  evidences  of  municipal  care  as  to 

234 


WAGES    AND    COST    OF    LIVING 

hygiene,  one  result  being  that  rents,  compared  with 
wages,  run  close  to  the  high  American  level. 

In  no  city  in  Europe  did  I  find  rents  any  cheaper, 
wages  considered,  than  they  run  in  Philadelphia, 
Baltimore,  Louisville,  or  in  the  New  England  towns 
not  having  a  boom,  or  even  in  many  cities  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi basin.  What  strikes  the  American  is  how  little 
the  European  renting  wage  worker  gets  for  his  money. 
Very  seldom  indeed  has  he  a  bit  of  garden ;  he  takes 
a  poor  water  service  for  granted ;  his  rooms  are  fewer 
and  smaller  than  is  ordinarily  the  case  in  an  Ameri- 
can house.  The  rent -payer  is  usually  a  rent-payer  for 
life.  No  institution  of  the  proportion  of  the  American 
building-and-loan  association  exists  in  any  European 
country.  The  movement  of  large  masses  from  the  po- 
sition of  rent-payers  to  that  of  householders  has  been 
characteristic  of  America.  European  philanthropists, 
statesmen,  and  co-operators  are  at  the  present  time 
endeavoring  to  establish  the  necessary  methods  to 
bring  about  American  results. 

Space  here,  to  my  regret,  is  insufficient  to  permit 
me  to  quote  the  rentals  paid  by  wage  workers  in  va- 
rious European  cities  which  are  entered  in  my  notes. 
I  have  been  obliged  to  give  my  conclusions  on  the 
subject  in  general  terms.  The  main  conclusion  as  to 
housing  is  the  same  as  that  relating  to  food:  If  the 
immigrant  to  this  country  is  willing  to  continue  living 
here  at  the  same  level  he  was  obliged  to  accept  in  his 
native  land,  he  can  find  it  for  the  same  money. 


CONDITIONS  IN  EUROPE  IMPROVING 

WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  November  9,  1909. 

THE  masses  in  Europe  are  worse  off  than  the  masess 
in  America ;  of  that  general  fact  the  emigration  from 
Europe  would  stand  as  one  sufficient  proof  if  others 
were  wanting.  But  are  the  workers  of  Europe  worse 
off  to-day  than  they  were  a  decade  ago  ? 

The  European  working-man  may  have  reasoned 
that  the  two  widely  different  economic  levels  at  which 
he  and  his  American  brother  have  been  accustomed 
to  live  must  be  due,  not  wholly  to  one  or  a  few  pre- 
ponderating influences,  but  to  many  factors,  among 
which  some  of  the  more  important  could  be  affected 
for  better  or  worse  in  his  own  particular  country  by 
legislation,  or  even  to  a  greater  extent  through  his 
own  action.  The  determining  circumstances  in  social 
conditions,  he  could  argue,  do  not  exist  through  an 
unavoidable  fatality ;  they  arise  as  sequences  to  causes 
that  are  subject  to  change  through  both  individual 
and  social  action.  At  all  events,  great  masses  of  Eu- 
ropean working-men  have  taken  this  view. 

To  find  out  the  faults  in  social  organization  which 
formed  the  immediate  and  remediable  cause  of  the 
acute  deprivation  and  suffering  to  which  the  property- 
less  classes  were  subjected,  and  to  correct  those  faults 

236 


CONDITIONS   IN   EUROPE   IMPROVING 

or  to  diminish  their  injurious  effects,  has  been  the  aim 
of  increasing  groups  of  discriminating  and  practical 
men  everywhere  in  Europe  both  in  the  wage  earn- 
ing and  other  classes  of  society.  For  the  period  of  a 
generation  these  groups  have  been  at  work  through 
their  respective  deliberately  chosen  methods.  Com- 
parison can  therefore  be  made  between  the  condi- 
tions of  the  masses  to-day  and  of  twenty-five  years 
ago,  and  report  upon  the  results  of  various  efforts  at 
social  improvement  be  drawn  up  in  definite  terms. 
Judgment  in  the  light  of  the  facts  may  also  be  passed 
upon  that  social  philosophy  which  teaches  on  the  one 
hand  that  "  things  must  be  worse  before  they  can 
become  better,"  and  on  the  other  that  "society  is  wit- 
nessing an  inevitable  progressive  impoverishment  of 
the  masses,"  the  end  of  which  can  only  be,  some  time, 
suddenly,  ' '  the  social  revolution. ' ' 

During  my  tour  in  Europe  I  spoke  with  many  men 
who  once  accepted  the  pessimistic  view  of  the  destiny 
of  society  as  at  present  organized,  but  who  now  ad- 
vocate its  gradual  improvement  through  the  suppres- 
sion of  its  injustices  as  occasion  arises  and  through  the 
further  development  of  those  movements  and  institu- 
tions that  already  contribute  to  the  common  welfare. 
With  the  change  in  their  theory  and  consequently  the 
basis  of  their  activities,  these  men  have  become  free 
to  look  upon  social  phenomena  as  they  really  are,  and 
not  as  they  ought  to  be  to  fit  in  with  the  preconceived 
idea  of  cumulative  misery  to  the  workers  and  disaster 
to  the  present  social  system.  It  is  at  the  same  time 
true  that  many  such  men  remain  to  some  extent  en- 

237 


LABOR  IN  EUROPE  AND  AMERICA 

gaged  in  the  practical  political  work  associated  with 
the  pessimistic  movement.  This  is  to  be  explained, 
however,  by  the  contradiction  between  the  hopeless 
philosophy  of  the  doctrinaires  of  the  Socialist  political 
party  and  the  inevitably  ameliorative  character  of  a 
part  of  its  work.  A  member  of  the  party  may  ac- 
knowledge that  the  theory  of  an  economic  trend  tow- 
ard conditions  worse  and  still  worse  until  the  explosion 
must  come  has  been  disproved  by  time,  and  that  the 
co-operative  State  as  a  conception  is  but  an  illusive 
dream.  But  he  may  remain  a  hard-working  " com- 
rade" because  his  co-workers  have  already  got  to- 
gether in  the  party,  because  of  the  benefits  arising 
from  its  local  or  national  immediate  programs,  and 
because  other  parties  are  led  by  the  enemies  of  demo- 
cratic progress. 

With  men  of  these  opportunist  views,  as  well  as  with 
radicals  upholding  the  extreme  individualistic  ideals 
of  a  new  social  order,  and  also  with  professional-class 
observers  of  social  movements,  I  have  discussed  my 
appreciation  of  the  facts  in  the  European  working- 
class  situation,  with  the  result  that  usually  all  have 
expressed  themselves  in  agreement  with  its  substantial 
truth.  In  brief,  I  give  it  herewith. 

First  in  order,  both  in  importance  and  in  the  march 
of  events,  is  the  fact  of  the  solidarity  to-day  in  the 
Xsentiment  of  the  masses  of  Europe.  They  feel  that 
great  social  changes  must  come  soon;  that  the  cur- 
tain has  been  rung  down  on  the  human  comedy  of 
government  by,  of,  and  for  the  classes;  that  the  day 
of  democracy  is  at  hand,  and  that  the  struggle  of  the 

238 


CONDITIONS   IN    EUROPE    IMPROVING 

toilers  for  their  own  shall  take  precedence  of  those 
wars  between  nations  which  mean  battles  without 
cause  between  working-men.  The  grade  of  education 
already  obtained  by  the  millions  for  the  first  time  in 
European  history  is  having  its  results  in  producing 
hosts  of  men  in  the  deprived  classes  capable  of  know- 
ing their  rights  and  defending  them.  The  indefinite 
cry  of ' '  Working-men  of  all  countries  unite ! "  has  been 
followed  by  the  query,  "On  what  basis  ?"  evoking  the 
answer,  "On  the  sentiment  of  brotherhood."  Hence, 
in  the  presence  of  an  event  such  as  the  execution  of 
Ferrer,  differences  of  party  platforms,  of  social  phil- 
osophies, are  sunk,  and  agreements  in  sympathies 
acted  upon.  The  various  resolutions  of  the  Interna- 
tional Secretariat  on  questions  outstripping  national 
boundaries  are  supported  by  Socialists,  Anarchists, 
trade-unionists,  and  progressives  in  general,  by  men 
of  various  faiths  as  well  as  by  those  of  no  faith;  the 
churches  of  every  denomination  are  invited  to  act 
solely  within  their  proper  sphere;  the  anti -military 
feeling  in  its  undercurrents  is  directed  rather  against 
the  promoters  of  human  fratricide  than  against  a 
rational  patriotism  and  the  essentials  of  national  de- 
fence. International  blacklegging  has  become  a  ques- 
tion for  universal  trade  -  union  activity  instead  of  a 
continued  incitation  to  inter-racial  hatreds.  The  mass- 
es in  all  countries  of  Europe,  now  unfettered  from  serf- 
dom's ignorance,  have  enlarged  their  mental  horizon, 
become  sympathetic  with  all  who  suffer  like  them- 
selves, no  matter  where  nature  has  cast  their  lot,  and 
have  been  thrown  into  a  state  of  social  unrest  which 

239 


LABOR  IN  EUROPE  AND  AMERICA 

only  a  general  uplifting  of  their  entire  stratum  of  so- 
ciety can  terminate. 

Certain  general  forms  of  activity  and  public  man- 
ifestation by  social  agitators  that  only  twenty  years 
ago  were  vigorously  repressed  are  now  tolerated  by 
the  governments  of  Europe.  Compulsion  is  frequently 
exerted  upon  government  authority  itself  instead  of 
upon  its  opponents.  Men  in  Austria  who  formerly 
were  sent  to  jail  for  their  democratic  teachings  are 
now  sent  to  the  Reichstag  to  give  them  utterance. 
Emblems  of  the  people's  aspirations  once  forbidden 
in  public  places  are  now  daily  carried  in  procession. 
Both  Belgium  and  Austria  have  seen  general  strikes 
that  extended  the  suffrage  to  large  masses  of  the  wage 
workers.  The  recent  national  strike  in  Sweden,  aided 
by  the  labor  organizations  of  all  Europe,  besides  serv- 
ing to  correct  abuses  of  power  by  employers,  hastened 
the  general  international  unity  of  the  workers.  It  is 
remarkable  that  nearly  every  monarch  in  Europe  at 
present  seeks  the  reputation  of  being  a  social  reformer. 
VFor  recent  positive  and  definite  gains  to  the  masses 
the  observer  must  especially  take  account  of  trade- 
union  achievement.  Few  are  the  industrial  commu- 
nities on  the  Continent  in  which  labor  organization  on 
the  English- American  system  has  not  had  a  marvel- 
lous development  during  the  last  ten  years.  /  Germany 
has  led.  It  now  counts  a  solid  trade-union  member- 
ship of  over  eighteen  hundred  thousand.  The  pro- 
fessional sociologists,  long  in  the  habit  of  echoing  the 
observation  of  their  predecessors  of  twenty  or  thirty 
years  ago  that  the  German  working-man  turned  to 

240 


CONDITIONS    IN    EUROPE    IMPROVING 

politics  where  the  English  or  American  went  into  the 
trade  union,  has  recently  discovered  that  what  is  really 
being  done  in  Germany  in  practical  work  for  the  wage 
earners  is  directed  from  trade-union  "centers."  The 
new  massive  administration  buildings  of  the  unions  in 
Berlin,  Hamburg,  Munich,  and  Cologne,  as  examples, 
are  striking  material  evidences  of  the  wealth,  power, 
and  energy  now  possessed  by  the  trade-unionists. 

In  these  letters  illustrations  have  already  been  given 
of  the  advances  in  wages  and  lessening  in  hours  of 
work  enforced  by  the  united  working-men  of  Germany. 
By  the  tourist  one  of  the  general  effects  of  unionism  is 
seen  in  the  general  closing  of  letail  stores  in  German 
cities  on  Sundays  and  at  eight  o'clock  in  the  evenings 
week-days.  Tens  of  thousands  of  shop  salesmen  be- 
lieve the  world  grew  somewhat  better  when  their  work- 
week was  reduced  from  eighty-four  hours,  as  it  was 
fourteen  years  ago  when  I  visited  Germany,  to  sixty 
hours  now. 

With  the  increased  strength  and  consequent  activity  / 
of  the  unions  have  come  the  usual  results  of  the  betteiy 
enforcement  of  factory  laws.  The  workmen,  through 
their  unions,  see  that  the  laws  are  posted  in  the  fac- 
tories and  that  employers  observe  the  provisions  ap- 
plicable to  women  and  children.  Leading  German 
trade-unionists  assert  positively  that  not  until  the 
unions  themselves  were  capable  of  enforcing  such  laws 
were  they  generally  carried  out.  To  some  extent  the 
large  cities  of  Austria,  Hungary,  Italy,  Switzerland, 
and  Belgium  have  trade-union  halls  or  co-operative 
buildings  in  which  the  unionists  are  the  class  chiefly 

16  241 


LABOR    IN    EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

interested.  Trade  agreements,  to  carry  out  which  labor 
organization  is  an  indispensable  feature,  exist  even  in 
Hungary.  In  Munich  80  per  cent  of  all  the  trades 
have  standing  contracts  as  to  wages  and  workday  with 
their  employers.  The  men  of  the  building  trades  of 
Italy,  South  Germany,  Switzerland,  and  Austria  have 
international  exchange  of  cards,  with  uniform  district 
wage-scales.  In  Germany  the  trade-unionists  I  inter- 
viewed had  but  one  opinion  as  to  the  comparative  rise 
of  wages  and  of  prices  of  the  necessaries  of  life:  the 
wage  line  in  the  diagrams  ran  by  far  the  highest. 

One  marked  improvement  was  reported  from  the 
unions — alcoholic  drinking  was  less  common  than 
formerly.  Restaurant  proprietors  who  formerly  re- 
ceived from  organizations  a  percentage  of  the  receipts 
from  the  drinks  sold  had  in  not  a  few  instances  given 
up  their  privilege;  in  the  halls  of  the.  unions  deficits 
from  the  drinking-tables  had  to  be  made  up  from  the 
dues.  These  were  not  the  results  from  either  prohi- 
bition or  other  sumptuary  laws,  but  from  labor  organ- 
ization and  the  consequent  improved  material  condi- 
tiofn  of  the  workers. 

J  So  runs  the  history  of  social  betterments  directly 
due  to  the  unions.  The  working-men  in  Germany 
who  are  in  position  to  send  their  children  to  school  a 
year  or  two  longer  than  once  was  the  case,  who  dress 
their  families  better  than  ever,  who  live  in  improved 
tenements  and  who  are  saving  something  from  their 
wages,  know  that  the  world  has  not  grown  worse  for 
them. 

A  twelve-month  ago  the  British  Trade- Union  Parlia- 

242 


CONDITIONS   IN    EUROPE    IMPROVING 

mentary  Committee  sent  on  a  mission  to  Germany 
four  of  its  members,  labor  representatives  in  Parlia- 
ment, to  inquire  into  the  working-men's  insurance  sys- 
tems of  the  empire.  They  reported  in  favor  of  the 
introduction  of  similar  systems  in  the  United  King- 
dom. The  Liberal  Government  has  consequently 
recognized  the  project  of  an  insurance  scheme  pro- 
viding four  main  features:  (i)  dues  from  employers 
and  employed;  (2)  a  supplementary  subvention  from 
the  State ;  (3)  insurances  of  trades ;  and  (4)  dues  to  be 
compulsory  for  employers  and  employed,  skilled  and 
unskilled.  Had  there  not  been  obviously  good  results 
from  the  working-class  insurance  methods  of  Germany 
the  representative  English  working-men  would  have 
condemned  them.  The  British  working-man  has  for 
several  years  experienced  the  advantages  of  a  system- 
atized legal  compensation  by  employers  in  case  of 
accident.  He  is  now  about  to  witness  the  establish- 
ment of  government  labor  exchanges,  somewhat  on  the 
German  system.  He  is  asking  for  insurance  against 
unemployment,  which  has  also  had  a  trial  in  a  few 
German  municipalities.  The  question  before  us  now 
is  not  whether  insurance  of  this  character  could  or 
should  be  applied  in  the  United  States.  The  fact  of 
its  establishment  in  some  European  countries  demon- 
strates social  progress  there. 

It  is  to  be  remembered  that  the  pessimists  in  the 
Reichstag,  their  eyes  directed  toward  the  day  of  revo- 
lution, twenty  years  ago  opposed  the  introduction  of 
the  working-men's  insurance  schemes  now  approved 
by  overwhelming  public  opinion  in  all  ranks  in  Ger- 

243 


LABOR    IN    EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

many.  Equally,  for  decades  they  ranged  themselves 
against  trade-unionism  as  "an  obstructionist  pallia- 
tive." And,  to  round  out  the  inadaptability  of  their 
philosophy  to  a  social  evolution  moving  apace  with  an 
aroused  public  conscience  and  an  age  of  ever  new 
methods,  they  for  years  persistently  refused  to  coun- 
tenance attempts  at  voluntary  co-operation.  Time 

in  the  latter  respect  again  proved  their  error. 
Next  to  trade-unionism,  co-operation  is  making  the 
itest  strides  not  only  in  Germany  but  throughout 
Europe.  In  Hamburg,  as  an  instance,  its  evidences 
are  remarkable.  Every  ward  of  this  beautiful  and 
magnificent  city  has  monumental  buildings  devoted 
to  some  form  of  co-operation.  The  wholesale  "cen- 
ter" is  a  large  series  of  structures  containing  butch- 
eries, bakeries,  warehouses,  offices  of  administration, 
a  hotel,  and  an  imposing  row  of  modern  apartment- 
houses  occupied  by  wage  workers.  The  building 
operations  of  the  Hamburg  Co-operative  Society  are 
carried  into  all  forms  of  constructive  work  for  not  only 
the  co-operators  but  the  municipality  and  private  in- 
vestors. The  society  pays  the  highest  wages  in  the 
city,  practices  profit  sharing,  and  has  in  use  note- 
worthy model  appliances  for  the  safety  and  welfare 
of  its  employes.  Not  only  all  the  large  industrial  cities 
of  Europe,  even  to  Budapest,  but  many  villages,  now 
have  active  co-operative  societies.  In  Italy  the  co- 
operative development  is  impressive.  Milan  has  co- 
operative stores,  printing-offiqes,  newspapers,  tene- 
ment buildings,  and  workmen's  co-operative  groups, 
and  a  central  building,  and  even  a  hotel.  In  England 

244 


CONDITIONS   IN    EUROPE   IMPROVING 

and  Scotland  the  advance  of  co-operation,  wholesale, 
retail,  and  productive,  is  marked  in  its  reports  by 
millions  of  pounds  every  year.  The  British  labor  co- 
partnership movement  now  includes  more  than  one 
hundred  productive  establishments,  among  them 
seventeen  gas  companies  with  twenty  thousand  em- 
ployes. The  Irish  dairy  and  farming  co-operative 
movement  is  helping  on  a  large  scale  the  small 
farmers  by  the  thousands,  as  are  the  land-purchasing 
acts  hundreds  of  thousands.  The  International  Co- 
operative Alliance,  with  its  biennial  congress,  serves 
to  enlighten  the  people  of  all  Europe  with  regard  to 
co-operative  methods  as  well  as  to  promote  the  senti- 
ments and  arts  of  peace  for  the  workers  instead  of 
those  of  hatred  and  destruction  by  war.  Curiously, 
some  of  the  upholders  of  compulsory  co-operation  by 
the  coming  State  are  prominent  in  promoting  the 
work  of  voluntary  co-operation  now. 

Nothing  more  significant  presented  itself  to  my  eye 
as  a  tourist  than  the  difference  in  appearance  of  the 
German  cities  between  the  time  I  visited  them  four- 
teen years  ago  and  the  present  year.  Accustomed  as  I 
long  have  been  not  to  accept  printed  reports  of 
working-class  betterments  through  help  of  official  au- 
thorities as  final,  I  went  in  each  city  to  what  at  the 
period  of  my  previous  visit  were  the  slum  districts. 
In  some  of  the  cities  these  have  been  about  com- 
pletely wiped  out.  For  instance,  in  "picturesque" 
Hamburg  the  dirty  narrow  old  streets,  with  their 
quaint  sixteenth-century  buildings,  now  exist  chiefly 
on  postal  cards  that  recall  the  past.  Fine  open  new 

245 


LABOR   IN    EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

boulevards  now  run  through  quarters  once  the  sorry 
refuge  of  the  poorest  stratum  of  society.  In  Berlin, 
in  the  northern  section,  a  vast  new  working-class 
quarter  has  been  developed.  The  streets  in  it  are 
wide,  the  dwellings  almost  palatial  outwardly,  the 
apartments  have  modern  equipments,  and  the  general 
custom  of  balcony  gardening  imparts  to  block  after 
block  an  inviting  appearance.  After  visiting  the  in- 
terior of  some  of  these  houses,  calling  on  the  families 
of  union  men  occupying  apartments  in  them,  hearing 
the  stories  of  increased  wages  through  labor  organi- 
zation, seeing  the  neatness  of  the  housekeeping,  and 
then  driving  for  miles  through  this  quarter,  for  me  to 
believe  that  the  working-classes  of  Berlin  are  in  the 
grasp  of  a  society  inevitably  doomed  to  destruction 
through  ever-deepening  poverty  would  be  to  reject  an 
experimental  appeal  to  my  reason.  And  the  same 
appeal  is  made  in  city  after  city  in  Germany. 

The  marked  improvement  in  municipal  manage- 
ment in  Germany  counts  for  something  to  the  wage 
workers  as  a  class.  Cleaning  up  has  gone  on  to  the 
point  of  keeping  highways,  parks,  and  other  outdoor 
public  possessions  permanently  in  good  order.  The 
ravages  of  disease,  especially  of  tuberculosis,  are 
steadily  being  fought  down.  The  decreasing  death- 
rate  tells  of  diminished  causes  of  suffering  among  the 
poor.  The  constant  improvement  in  the  German 
school  system,  with  its  extension  to  evening  classes, 
manual  training,  and  special  courses,  implies  a  de- 
velopment in  working  and  earning  capacity  for  the 
masses.  And  what  is  true  in  Germany  appeared  in 

246 


CONDITIONS    IN    EUROPE    IMPROVING 

a  large  degree  also  true  of  Italy,  France,  and  Switzer- 
land, and  to  a  lesser  extent  of  Austria,  Holland,  and 
Belgium. 

The  investigator  in  European  industrial  centers 
may  have  his  prejudices  against  charities,  or  trade- 
unionism,  or  municipal  or  State  activities  beyond  his 
own  theoretical  limits ;  yet  if  he  will  but  even  rapidly 
take  some  visual  cognizance  of  what  these  agencies 
are  doing  for  the  people  he  must  admit  that  each  has 
its  own  important  place  in  social  helpfulness.  It  is 
better  that  the  homeless  and  the  derelicts  of  a  great 
city  should  find  a  bunk  in  one  of  the  vast  municipal 
or  charitable  lodging-houses  than  to  wander  the 
streets  shelterless.  It  is  better  in  a  country  where  the 
poorest  laborers  have  been  accustomed  to  be  wards  of 
the  authorities  that  municipal  employment  exchanges 
should  care  for  the  unskilled  poor  than  that  they 
should  be  exploited  by  private  labor  brokers  or  "pa- 
drones."  It  is  well  for  the  law  to  step  in  and  specify 
what  safety  contrivances  must  be  placed  about  the 
machinery  in  workshops  rather  than  allow  the  em- 
ployer to  expose  his  employes  to  death  or  maiming. 
It  is  better  that  savings-banks  should  be  operated ^or 
controlled  by  the  Government  than  that  the  working- 
class  group  of  depositors  be  left  to  the  mercies  of 
sharpers  calling  themselves  bankers.  In  the  advanced 
industrial  European  countries  the  public  lodging- 
houses  are  reporting  that  sickness  and  hence  death 
among  the  homeless  are  diminishing;  public  labor 
exchanges  are  not  only  finding  work  for  untaught  boys 
and  men,  but  protecting  poor  women  and  girls  from 

247 


LABOR   IN    EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

the  dangers  of  private  agencies;  municipal  museums 
of  protective  methods  against  machinery  and  disease 
are  teaching  employers  their  duties  and  employes 
their  rights  in  these  respects,  and  the  general  savings 
funds  are  so  continually  increasing  as  to  indicate  a 
steadiness  in  working-class  thrift. 

There  is  no  Paradise  in  Europe  yet  for  the  toilers. 
Far  from  it.  Our  question  is  not  whether  life  is  to 
their  satisfaction,  but  whether,  as  asserted  by  the 
pessimists,  in  its  general  aspects  it  is  becoming  more 
intolerable.  The  philosophy  teaching  that  the  latter 
view  must  be  the  truth,  promulgated  with  persistence 
by  active  apostles  of  social  revolution,  is  in  the  name 
of  an  "unassailable  economic  science."  Assent  to  or 
dissent  from  their  teachings  must  follow  the  ascer- 
tained data  relating  to  the  question.  My  conclusions 
as  to  what  the  general  pertinent  facts  are  I  have  here- 
with submitted  briefly  to  the  rational  and  unpreju- 
diced reader  for  his  sober  judgment  and  to  the  dreamer 
of  the  coming  social  cataclysm  for  his  possible  cor- 
rection. 


TRADE-UNIONISM   IN  THE   VARIOUS  NATIONS 

WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  November  16,  1909. 

The  annual  convention  of  the  American  Federation 
of  Labor  at  Toronto  has  given  renewed  opportunity 
for  those  who  are  studying  the  world-wide  organiza- 
tion of  labor  to  see  the  differences  between  American 
and  European  trade  unions  and  their  methods  of  pro- 
cedure. The  chief  characteristic  of  the  American 
Federation  in  its  form  of  organization  is  that  there 
can  be  but  one  general  union  of  wage-earners  for  each 
calling.  Besides,  it  has  no  dependence  in  any  way 
upon  subsidies  from  States,  municipalities,  or  phil- 
anthropic societies,  has  no  affiliation  with  any  political 
party,  and  exerts  no  power  of  administration  over  the 
international  unions  which  are  united  in  its  name, 
each  of  these  being  autonomous. 

The  General  Confederation  of  Labor  in  France  (the 
"C.  G.  T.")  is  the  furthest  possible  removed  from  the 
American  Federation  of  Labor  in  both  organization 
and  methods.  The  benevolent  intentions  of  the 
French  Government,  as  manifested  in  recent  years, 
after  a  settled  attitude  of  antagonism  maintained  in 
the  law  toward  labor  unions  until  1884,  have  given 
organization  in  many  callings  a  false  start.  The  de- 
crees providing  for  the  Bourses  du  Travail  permit  the 

249 


LABOR    IN    EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

establishment  of  one  of  these  centers  for  labor  meet- 
ings and  the  employment  of  wage  workers  in  any 
town  of  five  thousand  inhabitants.  The  Government 
allows  each  Bourse  a  subsidy  that  was  meant  espe- 
cially for  the  maintenance  of  the  labor  exchange  feat- 
ure of  the  institution.  From  this  subsidy  the  meet- 
ing-hall and  offices  of  the  secretaries  are  furnished, 
and  telephones,  letter-files,  and  stationery  provided. 
The  franking  privilege  for  communications  with 
government  or  municipal  officials  is  also  permitted. 

The  amount  appropriated  for  the  Paris  Bourse  du 
Travail  alone  is  at  present  twenty-three  thousand 
dollars  a  year.  What  benefit  do  the  solid  unions  of 
the  city  receive  from  its  privileges  ?  The  reply  is  that 
in  general  they  do  not  avail  themselves  of  the  proffered 
help.  They  have  headquarters  for  their  offices  and 
halls  for  their  meetings  irrespective  of  the  existence 
of  the  Bourse.  Nor  do  the  leading  revolutionary 
organizations  get  any  share  of  the  subsidy.  On  mis- 
behavior, in  the  eyes  of  the  authorities,  they  are  ex- 
cluded from  the  Bourse  building.  The  result  is  that 
while  the  conservative  Typographical  Union,  on  the 
one  hand,  and  the  radical  "C.  G.  T. "  Central  Com- 
mittee itself,  on  the  other,  have  nothing  to  do  with  the 
Bourse,  in  it  are  the  offices  of  a  long  list  of  secretaries 
whose  organizations  an  American  central  labor  union 
would  have  good  reason  to  investigate  carefully  before 
according  to  them  the  right  of  representation.  The 
membership  of  such  an  organization  may  consist 
merely  of  persons  who  at  one  time  or  another  have  en- 
tered their  names  in  the  book  of  employment-seekers 

250 


UNIONISM    IN    THE    VARIOUS    NATIONS 

in  one  of  the  offices  of  the  Bourse.  Few  of  them  may 
have  ever  paid  dues  or  assessments.  These  organiza- 
tions may  have  no  benefit  or  other  fund.  An  ex-mem- 
ber of  one  of  them,  an  active  unionist,  said  in  the 
presence  of  a  party  of  visitors  at  the  Bourse  that  on 
one  occasion  he  had  gathered  some  of  his  fellow-mem- 
bers together  and  caused  himself  to  be  appointed  on 
a  committee  to  examine  the  books  of  their  "union/' 
The  secretary  refused  to  show  his  accounts  or  even 
to  recognize  the  committee.  No  regular  meetings  of 
the  union  were  held.  Yet  through  the  secretary  the 
organization  would  have  the  right  to  send  a  delegate 
to  the  general  meetings  of  the  "C.  G.  T.,"  and  he 
would  have  a  vote  the  same  as  if  he  represented  the 
most  solid  union  in  the  country.  Worse,  for  the  en- 
tire occupation  of  which  it  might  represent  only  one 
small  subdivision,  this  skeleton  of  a  union  could  at- 
tempt to  call  a  "general  strike."  This  has  actually 
happened  in  regard  to  the  cooks  in  Paris,  with  sad 
results  to  all  concerned.  On  the  occasion  of  such 
strikes  the  men  asked  to  walk  out  sometimes  do  so 
merely  for  the  sake  of  sentiment.  Thus  workmen  are 
subjected  to  loss,  the  community  is  made  uneasy,  the 
employers  are  disgusted,  and  the  newspapers  given  a 
sensation,  with  good  cause  to  laugh  or  to  sneer  at  the 
follies  of  the  working-man.  After  the  strikers  have 
satisfied  the  demands  of  their  sanguine  temperament, 
demonstrated  liberty,  equality,  and  fraternity,  and 
sung  the  Marseillaise,  they  renew  the  long  day,  the 
low  wage  level,  and  the  toilsome  existence  against 
which  they  rebelled.  It  is  from  such  unions,  accord- 

251 


LABOR    IN    EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

ing  to  the  French  Minister  of  Labor,  Viviani,  that 
much  of  the  voting  strength  comes  at  the  congresses 
of  the  "C.  G.  T."  The  "C.  G.  T."  itself,  however, 
rails  against  the  "  syndicats  "  (unions)  that  depend 
wholly  upon  the  Bourses  du  Travail. 

Very  little  is  heard  of  the  unions  not  in  the  national 
body,  the  "C.  G.  T.,"  yet  the  Minister,  in  a  yet  un- 
contradicted  speech  in  the  Chamber  of  Deputies  in 
October  last  year,  said  that  in  it  were  represented  only 
322,000  unionists  of  the  950,000  in  France,  while  its 
treasury  contained  at  that  date  about  twelve  hundred 
dollars!  At  the  labor  organization  congress  at  Mar- 
seilles, a  short  time  before,  a  motion  introduced  by 
the  anti-militarists  had  been  adopted  by  a  majority 
of  the  delegates,  the  vote  being  taken  under  the  vicious 
system  of  voting  by  organizations  instead  of  by  the 
number  of  members  represented.  The  winning  dele- 
gates represented  only  99,417  members  while  the 
delegates  opposing  the  motion  represented  215,000. 

Of  course,  this  whole  system  of  organization  and 
proceedings  is  out  of  harmony  with  the  real  name  of 
unionism.  Its  effect  is  to  put  France  for  the  present 
outside  the  domain  of  serious  expectation  in  regard 
to  constructive  work  to  be  done  by  the  central  national 
labor  body.  Yet  there  are  great  solid  trade  organiza- 
tions in  that  country,  with  large  funds  in  their  treas- 
uries, carrying  on  the  work  done  by  national  unions 
in  other  countries.  Among  these  are  the  unions  of 
the  miners,  the  printers,  the  railroad  employes,  and 
the  metal  workers,  the  leaders  of  which  at  the  present 
time  have  a  plan  to  reorganize  the  central  body  on  the 

252 


UNIONISM    IN    THE    VARIOUS    NATIONS 

rational  and  just  basis  of  a  representation  propor- 
tional to  membership,  with  partisan  politics  set  aside 
and  due  attention  given  to  the  possibilities  of  reason- 
able demands  on  employers  backed  by  the  funds 
necessary  to  provide  regular  strike-pay.  Instead  of 
a  general  May-day  strike  for  eight  hours,  opportune 
demands  will  be  made  in  any  occupation  where  the 
promise  exists  of  somewhat  higher  wages  or  slightly 
less  time  than  in  the  existing  workday,  and  instead 
of  " direct  action,"  signifying  too  often  futile  violence, 
the  program  calls  for  collective  bargaining,  referendum, 
and  secret  ballot  before  striking,  and  voluntary  con- 
ciliation boards  to  deal  with  all  disputes. 

In  Austria,  Hungary  Italy,  and  Switzerland  partial 
industrialism  instead  of  trade  autonomy  is  in  several 
occupations  the  form  of  organization.  (I  use  the  term 
"trade  autonomy"  here  in  the  sense  in  which  it  is 
generally  understood  in  the  United  States.)  For  ex- 
ample, in  Italy  the  building  trades  have  in  the  smaller 
cities  but  a  single  union,  which  includes  all  the  work- 
men of  the  various  trades  connected  with  "wall  con- 
struction" —stone-cutters,  brick  and  stone  masons, 
plasterers,  day  laborers.  Plumbers  and  gasfitters, 
carpenters  and  joiners,  and  the  like,  are  not  in  this 
"union."  The  printing  industry  finds  compositors, 
pressmen,  bookbinders,  and  even  the  type-founders 
amalgamated,  rather  than  federated  as  they  are  in 
America.  The  metal-workers'  union  seems  by  its 
printed  reports  extraordinarily  strong  in  numbers 
until  one  becomes  acquainted  with  its  make-up,  into 
which,  apparently,  may  enter  every  man  who  in  his 

253 


LABOR    IN    EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

daily  labor  handles  any  kind  of  metal.  In  the  Swiss 
metal-workers'  union  are  the  building  trades,  iron 
and  steel  workers,  blacksmiths  and  wagonmakers, 
ornamental  iron-workers,  housesmiths,  iron-founders, 
bridge  builders,  and  the  factory  mechanics  who  make 
small  wares,  including  watches.  The  central  labor 
unions  of  the  towns  of  lesser  importance  in  several 
countries  accept  as  members  almost  any  individual 
of  the  working-class  or  even  any  professed  sympa- 
thizer, a  state  of  things  permitting  an  opening  to 
politicians  and  business  men  with  ambitions.  In 
Switzerland  there  is  one  national  labor  organization 
that  is  made  up  of  the  workers  at  any  branch  of 
industry  handling  or  manufacturing  food  or  chem- 
ical products  or  glassware.  They  are  known  as  the 
"Alimentary  Workers'  Union." 

In  Austria  there  are  unions  of  seven  nationalities — 
Germans,  Bohemians,  Slovaks,  Croats,  Ruthenians, 
Italians,  and  Roumanians.  Of  the  total  membership 
75  per  cent  are  German-speaking  and  20  per  cent  Bo- 
hemian. The  whole  number  of  union  members  is  set 
down  in  the  International  Secretariat  report  for  1909 
as  four  hundred  and  eighty  thousand.  Very  few  of 
these  unions  existed  before  the  political  movement 
of  the  working-class  attained  considerable  strength. 
Leaders  in  the  political  movement,  becoming  con- 
vinced in  the  course  of  time  that  there  was  an  absolute 
necessity  for  improving  the  condition  of  the  wage 
workers  through  trade-union  methods,  assisted  in  up- 
building the  labor  organizations.  This  explains  why 
the  latter,  despite  the  resolutions  passed  at  their  con- 

254 


UNIONISM    IN    THE    VARIOUS    NATIONS 

gress  that  the  unions  must  exist  apart  from  the 
political  organization,  are  in  not  a  few  cases  officered 
by  prominent  party  leaders.  The  unions  are  mostly 
in  the  first  crude  stages  of  true  trade-unionism,  excep- 
tions to  be  noted  in  cases.  Since  "combination  in 
restraint  of  trade"  is  illegal,  the  Austrian  unions  are 
outlawed.  Their  benefit  features  are  carried  on  by 
means  of  so-called  "free  organizations,"  whose  office 
windows  where  benefit  dues  are  received  may  be  in 
the  same  room  with  the  union  secretary's  windows  at 
which  union  dues  are  received.  The  party  secretaries 
may  be  found  on  another  floor  in  the  same  building, 
and  the  co-operative  secretaries  on  still  another  floor. 
Hence,  the  "central"  in  an  Austrian  or  Bohemian  city 
may  be  an  imposing  structure.  Something  of  the 
same  state  of  things  exists  in  Hungary ;  several  of  the 
"centrals"  in  Budapest  are  among  the  largest  build- 
ings in  the  city.  In  fact,  in  all  the  European  Conti- 
nental countries  visited,  to  a  greater  or  less  extent, 
unionism  was  found  in  one  form  or  another  inter- 
mingled with  partisan  politics,  co-operation,  industrial 
insurance,  and  municipal  reform.  The  leaders  in  any 
one  of  these  forms  of  social  activity  were  usually  also 
leaders  in  another. 

In  Germany,  however,  the  trade-union  movement 
has  become  differentiated  from  all  the  others  to  a 
much  greater  degree  than  in  any  other  European 
country.  Whereas  the  situation  in  Germany  when  I 
visited  Europe  fourteen  years  ago  resembled  that  in 
Austria  at  the  present  time,  the  remarkable  growth 
of  unionism  in  the  last  decade  and  a  half  has  been  ac- 

255 


LABOR    IN    EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

companied  by  a  developing  independence,  in  spirit, 
organization,  leadership,  and  activity.  The  obvious 
gains  through  union  processes  has  appealed  to  the 
general  intelligence  and  practical  turn  of  mind  of  the 
German  workers.  The  "centrals"  in  such  cities  as 
Berlin,  Munich,  Cologne,  and  Hamburg  are  really 
union  headquarters.  The  official  reports  relate  to 
union  effort.  The  objects  of  the  organizations,  as 
shown  in  their  publications,  are  clearly  defined,  within 
the  scope  of  trade-unionism.  Time  and  again,  when 
going  about  the  cities  named  with  prominent  labor 
men,  I  asked  the  question:  "To  what  source  is  due 
the  actual  change  for  the  better  in  the  standard  of 
living  of  the  working-classes  in  your  city?"  The  re- 
ply invariably  was:  "The  trade  unions,  first  and  fore- 
most." 

So  far  has  the  differentiation,  to  which  I  have  re- 
ferred, between  the  trade-unionists  and  the  socialists 
of  Germany  developed,  there  is  a  distinct  cleavage  in 
which  the  latter  are  known  as  "Marxists,"  the  for- 
mer as  "Revisionists."  Bernstein,  an  "intellectual," 
though  a  Socialist,  has  for  the  past  few  years  thrown 
his  influence  with  the  trade-unionists  or  Revisionists. 
For  this  he  and  the  trade-unionists  who  are  also  so- 
cialists were  about  to  be  disciplined  or  "read  out"  of 
the  party.  This  was  to  be  a  part  of  the  program  of 
the  September,  1909,  party  congress.  Asking  one  of 
Germany's  foremost  trade-unionists  whether  he  would 
attend  the  Socialist  party's  congress  and  take  part  in 
the  contest  which  the  subject  was  sure  to  evoke,  he 
replied:  "I  don't  bother  with  such  tomfoolery  any 

256 


UNIONISM    IN    THE    VARIOUS    NATIONS 

more."  At  the  party  congress  the  subject  was  de- 
bated, but  inasmuch  as  the  trade-unionists'  votes  are 
an  important  socialist  factor  in  Germany's  elections, 
the  party  leaders  deemed  it  "inexpedient"  to  act  on 
the  matter,  and  it  was  dropped  by  proceeding  to  "the 
next  order  of  business." 

The  modern  "house -cleaning"  of  cities  and  the 
governmental  philanthropies  as  exhibited  in  working- 
class  insurance  fall  far  secondary  to  the  results  of 
direct  union  action,  and  in  fact  without  union  in- 
fluence much  of  the  legislation  for  the  benefit  of  the 
workers  would  remain  unenforced.  On  the  whole,  it 
can  be  said  that  the  German  trade  unions  of  to-day 
more  nearly  resemble  the  American  trade  unions  than 
do  those  of  any  other  country  in  Europe. 

Aside  from  Germany,  the  Continental  countries 
make  a  poor  exhibit  financially  in  their  unions  as  com- 
pared with  America.  For  example,  in  Austria  the 
total  income  in  1907  of  the  labor  organizations,  with 
about  half  a  million  members,  was  $1,600,000;  ex- 
penditures, $1,400,000.  In  the  same  year  the  receipts 
of  the  International  Typographical  Union  in  America 
were  $1,800,000  and  the  expenditures  $1,640,000 — a 
strike  year — while  in  1909  its  receipts  were  $478,000 
and  its  expenditures  $458,000,  its  benefits  amounting 
to  $308,000.  The  total  benefits  paid  by  all  the  Aus- 
trian unions  combined  were:  Travelling,  $33,000;  out- 
of-work,  $230,000;  sick,  funeral,  and  infirmity,  $230,- 
ooo;  "distress,"  $80,000;  total,  $573,000.  The  total 
income  of  the  Cigarmakers'  International  Union  of 
America  for  the  last  year  was  $828,498.87.  The  bene- 
17  257 


LABOR    IN    EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

fits  paid  for  the  year  were  $553,832.34,  as  follows: 
Loans  to  travelling  members,  $46,613.44;  sick  bene- 
fits, $184,755.69;  death  and  total  disability  benefits, 
$220,979.71;  out-of-work  benefits,  $101,483.50.  The 
expenditures  of  the  American  carpenters'  unions, 
miners'  unions,  and  a  number  of  others  would  show 
larger  benefits  paid  to  the  members  of  each  than  the 
combined  benefits  of  the  labor  organizations  of  all 
Austria.  A  number  of  the  American  international 
unions  have  singly  a  larger  budget  than  all  the  Aus- 
trian unions  together.  It  is  to  be  noted  that  the 
Austrian  unions  include  the  railway  men,  of  whom  50 
per  cent  are  organized. 

As  in  all  European  countries,  the  printers  in  Austria 
stand  at  the  head  of  proportion  organized,  94  per 
cent.  But  the  percentage  in  other  trades  runs:  bak- 
ers, 19;  miners,  23;  brewers,  33;  wood-workers,  20; 
metal-workers,  28;  glass-workers,  24;  hatters,  21; 
flour-millers,  12;  barbers,  5;  tailors,  6;  boot  and  shoe 
workers,  8;  tobacco-workers,  16;  carpenters,  16;  tex- 
tile-workers, 14.  In  the  majority  of  the  Austrian 
unions  the  dues  are  graded,  as  the  membership  is  made 
up  of  classes  of  workers  whose  wages  differ  greatly. 
For  instance,  the  hatters,  whose  union  takes  in  nearly 
all  the  employes  of  a  factory  regardless  of  skill  or  of 
trade  distinctions,  have  four  dues  grades,  paying,  re- 
spectively, six,  seven,  eight,  and  twelve  cents  a  week. 
The  carpenters  also  have  four  grades,  at  six,  eight, 
ten,  and  twelve  cents.  To  the  American  observer  a 
significance  will  attach  to  this  statistical  showing  for 
Austrian  trade-unionism,  inasmuch  as  at  the  Inter- 

258 


UNIONISM    IN    THE    VARIOUS    NATIONS 

national  Secretariat  Congress  at  Paris  in  August  the 
harshest  and  most  persistent  critic  of  our  "conserva- 
tive" American  trade-union  policy  was  the  Austrian 
delegate. 

The  British  trade  unions  have  so  long  been  accorded 
first  place  in  labor  organization  by  college  text-book 
makers  and  other  professional  -  class  authors  that  it 
may  seem  an  impertinence  to  set  up  a  claim  that  such 
writers  are  years  behind  the  facts  of  the  situation. 
When  the  American  Federation  of  Labor,  fifteen  years 
ago,  began  sending  fraternal  delegates  to  the  British 
Trade-Union  Congress,  an  expert  first-hand  investiga- 
tion on  the  field  of  British  unions  began  that  has  been 
carried  on  during  the  periods  of  their  visits  by  the 
thirty  Americans  since  sent  over,  two  together  each 
year.  The  claim  may  be  made  positively  that  only 
one  or  two  of  these  delegates  found  his  own  trade 
better  organized  in  Great  Britain  than  it  is  in  Amer- 
ica, and  that  not  one  of  them,  viewing  as  a  whole  the 
trade-union  movement  in  Great  Britain,  can  say  it  is 
as  scientifically  organized,  or  as  well  prepared  for  mili- 
tant action,  or  as  free  from  the  interference  of  hurtful 
external  influences  as  the  movement  in  America.  In 
certain  of  the  British  unions  there  is  some  superiority  in 
their  varied  forms  of  industrial  insurance,  which  in  their 
country  is  occupational  ratherthan,  as  in  America,  social. 

In  mentioning  these  conclusions  there  is  no  inten- 
tion to  make  derogatory  statements.  Facts  only  are 
set  down,  their  virtue  and  point  being  in  their  truth. 
Space  here  permits  of  only  a  few  illustrations  of  the 
general  idea.  The  American  Federation  of  Labor's 

259 


LABOR    IN    EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

rule  that  there  can  be  only  one  national  organization 
for  each  calling  has  no  existence  in  Great  Britain. 
In  the  British  Trade-Union  Congress  there  are  dele- 
gates representing  "national"  or  even  "district'* 
trade  or  labor  organizations  which  may  have  quite 
undefined  jurisdictions,  either  as  to  occupation  or 
geographical  area.  For  example,  there  were  repre- 
sented at  the  Ipswich  Congress  three  organizations  of 
insurance  agents,  three  of  bakers  and  confectioners, 
two  of  bleachers  and  dyers,  three  of  bookbinders,  two 
of  boot  and  shoe  workers,  two  of  carpenters,  five  of 
teamsters,  two  of  cigarmakers,  six  of  the  garment 
trades,  four  of  compositors,  seven  of  laborers,  four  of 
engineers,  five  of  miners,  and  more  than  a  score  of 
textile-workers.  Only  a  third  of  the  eighteen  hundred 
thousand  unionists  represented  in  the  Congress  are 
united  in  the  systematized  movement  allied  in  the 
General  Federation  of  Trades  to  render  financial  aid 
to  one  another  in  cases  of  trade  disputes.  And  in 
striking  contrast  with  the  American  custom,  no  organ- 
izers are  employed  by  either  of  the  central  national 
organizations.  Considerable  districts  of  England  re- 
main quite  outside  of  unionism  as  well  as  entire 
branches  of  the  trades  in  certain  localities. 

In  unity  and  compactness  of  organization,  progres- 
siveness  in  propaganda,  thoroughness  and  clearness  in 
scope  and  purpose,  militancy  of  spirit,  soundness  in 
finances,  adaptability  in  administration  to  the  ends 
sought,  or  continuity  and  rapidity  of  development, 
the  national  movement  in  no  foreign  country  can  com- 
pare with  the  American  Federation  of  Labor. 

260 


NUISANCES  OF  EUROPEAN  TRAVEL 

WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  November  23,  1909. 

HAVING  in  previous  letters  given  my  impressions 
with  regard  to  matters  of  more  serious  import,  I  wish 
to  say  something  about  the  almost  hourly  sufferings 
of  American  travellers  in  Europe  from  mosquito  bites. 
To  the  sharp  probes  from  these  insects,  with  the  result- 
ant pain,  fever,  and  disgust,  the  traveller  is  obliged  to 
submit  continually — at  hotels  and  restaurants,  on  the 
railroad,  and  often  elsewhere — as  he  goes  seeing  the 
sights.  To  illustrate:  Our  party,  on  arriving  at  The 
Hague,  engaged  two  mosquitoes  in  the  form  of  station 
porters  to  carry  our  hand-baggage  to  the  bus  of  the 
Hotel  "  Blank/'  waiting  at  the  curb  at  the  station  exit. 
The  station  porters  passed  the  valises  over  to  the  hotel 
bus  porter  at  a  point  just  within  the  station  door. 
Nip!  nip!  by  the  two  station  porters.  When  we  ar- 
rived at  the  hotel  door  both  the  bus  porter  and  the 
bus  driver  asked  me  for  what  they  regarded  as  their 
due  drop  of  blood — nip!  nip!  Within  the  door  of  the 
hotel  the  manager  informed  us  that  all  his  rooms  had 
been  engaged  by  telegraph,  but  that  he  could  give  us 
"good  rooms  at  a  clean  hotel  near  by,"  and  we  took 
them.  Two  hotel  porters  who  had  carried  our  bits  of 
hand-baggage  into  the  hotel  lobby  asked  me,  as  soon 

261 


LABOR    IN    EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

as  the  manager  had  turned  his  back,  for  their  tribute 
— nip!  nip!  Yet  another  porter,  after  taking  the 
things  a  few  steps  down  the  street  to  the  other  hotel, 
stood  by  in  the  hallway  and  waited  to  give  me  his  nip. 
Seven  gouges  out  of  my  pocket  of  silver  change  be- 
fore we  reached  our  rooms!  But  the  probes  of  the 
mosquito  swarms  of  this  hotel  reached  even  further. 
The  little  hotel  charged  us  Hotel  "Blank"  rates  for 
our  rooms,  about  double  what  would  have  been  asked 
had  we  gone  there  direct  and  bargained  for  accommo- 
dations. And  the  dinner  at  the  Hotel  " Blank"  cost 
us  half  a  florin  apiece  more  than  the  price  set  down 
in  the  guide-book.  In  this  incident  the  reader  sees 
some,  but  not  all,  of  the  methods  of  stinging  which  the 
hotel  mosquitoes  practice. 

In  Berlin,  just  at  the  moment  of  our  departure,  the 
portier,  the  gold-laced  and  brass-buttoned  dignitary 
who  browbeats  lamb-like  guests  at  European  hotel 
entrances,  handed  us  our  laundry  bill,  every  article  of 
which  was  charged  double  to  treble  New  York  prices. 
In  Vienna,  tired  of  blood  -  letting  to  each  mosquito 
separately  in  the  group  of  servants  always  assembled 
about  the  door  upon  our  departure — "the  review," 
they  themselves  call  this  evolution — I  drew  the  man- 
ager aside  and  said:  "I  understand  that  there  is  a 
way  of  giving  tips  to  all  hands  through  the  manage- 
ment" (one  bleeding,  as  it  were);  "how  much  extra 
shall  I  give  you  ? "  He  replied :  '  'Twenty  per  cent  of 
your  bill." 

I  was  rather  tickled  than  bitten  the  first  time  I  got 
a  nip  in  a  European  railway  train.  One  of  our  party 

262 


NUISANCES    OF    EUROPEAN   TRAVEL 

suggested  that  as  the  second-class  places  were  crowded 
we  should  go  into  a  first-class  compartment  and  await 
results.  When  the  conductor,  in  his  jim-dandy  uni- 
form, came  along,  he  was  handed  our  second  -  class 
tickets  and  a  mark — a  silver  coin  worth  a  paltry 
twenty-five  cents.  And  he  took  our  tickets  and 
passed  on  without  seeing  for  what  class  they  called. 
The  vast  possibilities  of  cheaply  purchased  privileges 
on  future  trips  acted  as  a  palliative  to  this  little  sting. 
And  the  thought  of  what  might  happen  if  the  traveller 
in  America  should  try  to  overcome  the  virtue  of  one 
of  our  express-train  conductors  with  "a  quarter" 
brought  all  our  party  to  see  the  circumstance  from  a 
humorous  point  of  view.  Truth  to  relate,  it  marked 
the  beginning  of  a  custom  we  followed — since  we 
learned  that  it  was  general — of  buying  our  way  past 
any  obstacle  that  appeared  to  interrupt  the  smooth- 
ness or  comfort  of  our  daily  progress.  With  a  little 
silver  we  henceforth  obtained  concessions  from  grand- 
looking  policemen,  soldiers  on  guard,  vergers  in 
churches,  museum  custodians.  It  is  a  common  cus- 
tom for  the  conductors  of  street-cars  in  Continental 
Europe  to  hold  out  their  hands  to  receive  as  a  tip  any 
small  change  due,  but  first  handed  over  to  the  pas- 
senger. You  may  have  your  choice  in  European 
travel:  Bribe  and  be  otherwise  happy  and  free,  or 
virtuously  decline  to  bribe  and  be  snubbed,  ordered 
about,  and  forbidden  to  see  things. 

The  tipping  system,  bad  as  it  is  becoming  in  Amer- 
ica, is  in  Europe  universal,  and  accepted  by  all  classes 
of  travellers  as  an  inevitable  nuisance.  It  often  bor- 

263 


LABOR    IN    EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

ders  on  blackmail.  Tippers  go  raving  mad  in  recount- 
ing their  wrongs  under  the  tyrannies  of  the  system, 
the  newspapers  by  turns  rail  or  make  merry  over  it, 
the  hotel  -  keepers  and  other  employers  of  the  class 
have  their  excuse  that  they  pay  wages  to  their  ser- 
vants— but  the  tipping  goes  on  forever.  Why  is  it? 
Who  is  to  blame? 

These  questions  I  asked  representative  waiters — for 
representatives  these  men  have,  many  of  them  being 
organized  in  benefit  societies  and  a  small  proportion  in 
a  sort  of  trade  union.  But  one  answer  was  given. 
The  system  is  detestable  to  every  man  or  woman 
of  the  serving  class  possessing  the  least  degree  of  self- 
respect.  It  is  demoralizing  to  all  who  either  re- 
ceive or  give  tips.  The  real  beneficiaries  of  the  sys- 
tem are  the  employers.  An  end  to  it,  with  a  fair 
standard  of  wages,  would  be  a  boon  of  the  first  order 
to  the  employes,  a  means  of  compelling  hotel  pro- 
prietors to  put  their  business  on  a  basis  of  fair  dealing, 
and  an  incalculable  aid  to  the  tranquillity  and  pleas- 
ure of  the  general  public. 

"I  have  often  talked  over  the  system  of  tipping  with 
my  fellow- waiters,"  said  an  educated  man  of  the  call- 
ing, when  I  brought  up  the  subject  to  him.  (Paren- 
thetically, perhaps  I  should  here  say  that  since  this 
man  speaks  fluently  and  writes  correctly  four  lan- 
guages, has  travelled  much  and  observed  well  on  the 
great  tourist  routes  of  the  world,  has  studied  some 
of  the  serious  works  of  writers  on  sociology,  and  has 
withal  acquired  agreeable  manners,  he  may  be  called 
educated.  Without  doubt,  had  he  a  few  thousands 

264 


NUISANCES    OF    EUROPEAN   TRAVEL 

of  vulgar  dollars  he  might  buy  himself  a  title  as 
Baron  and  marry  in  our  best  society ;  but  he  is  above 
that;  he  has  a  craving  for  walking  in  the  light  of 
truth.)  "All  of  us  would  like  to  see  the  system  abol- 
ished," he  assured  me,  "  except  a  small  minority 
who  in  their  moral  make  -  up  resemble  pirates,  and 
who  cruise  in  places  where  riches  abound.  But  the 
whole  situation  is  one  in  which  reform  is  most  difficult. 
"Among  the  people  who  patronize  hotels  and  res- 
taurants there  is  a  considerable  element  that,  either 
for  a  week  of  frolic  or  during  their  life-long  holiday, 
are  regardless  of  the  value  of  their  tips,  and  through 
their  vanity  enjoy  throwing  away  a  percentage  of 
their  ready  money.  Then,  also,  are  those  grateful 
for  the  little  kindly  attentions  which  a  good  waiter  or 
porter  knows  how  to  bestow.  As  for  the  proprietors 
and  managers,  their  business  is  based  on  tips  as  one 
of  the  considerable  forms  of  revenue.  For  instance, 
in  many  German  hotels  the  waiters  are  obliged  to  give 
the  cashier  five  or  more  marks  additional  on  every 
hundred  marks  of  checks.  In  Austria,  at  the  larger 
restaurants  the  customer  tips  three  persons  after  a 
meal  —  the  head  -  waiter  who  collects  the  payments, 
the  waiter  who  serves,  and  the  piccolo,  or  beer-  boy. 
The  hotel  management  sells  to  the  head-waiter  the 
monopoly  privileges  of  the  tips.  The  head- waiter 
then  provides  the  newspapers  and  magazines  on  file, 
the  city  directories  and  time-tables  and  other  books 
of  reference  called  for  by  patrons,  and  a  part  of  the 
outfit  of  the  waiters.  Of  course,  it  is  an  old  and  true 
story,  that  of  the  big  restaurants  of  Paris,  and  to-day 

265 


LABOR    IN    EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

of  other  cities  and  of  certain  fashionable  watering- 
places,  that  the  waiters  pay  so  much  cash  a  day  for 
their  jobs.  The  pestering  of  guests  to  buy  drinks 
comes,  not  so  much  from  commissions,  as  from  orders 
of  the  management  that  the  custom  of  drinking  at 
meals  must  be  encouraged.  In  Germany  it  is  usual 
at  the  larger  restaurants  to  add  half  a  mark  to  the 
cost  of  a  meal  if  the  guest  drinks  plain  water  only. 

"European  hotels  generally  take  on  more  servants 
than  are  necessary.  It  makes  a  showing  of  being  pre- 
pared for  a  big  business.  Then  the  servants  must 
redouble  their  artful  moves  to  extort  tips.  Porters  not 
infrequently  work  without  any  salary  at  all.  Cham- 
bermaids, who  are  paid  by  the  month,  receive  absurd- 
ly low  pay.  Financing  a  hotel  or  restaurant  is  based 
on  the  tips  as  a  margin  yielding  on  the  average  a  fixed 
amount.  To  make  them  reach  the  required  sum,  all 
the  employes  are  obliged  to  manoeuvre  so  as  to  put  up 
a  showing  of  earning  the  travellers'  extra  silver  pieces. 
Coppers  rarely  are  expected  as  tips  now.  It  has  be- 
come common  for  railway-station  porters  to  demand 
half  a  franc  for  what  once  brought  them  a  few  sous 
or  pfennigs. 

"One  outcome  of  running  a  hotel  on  the  tipping 
system  developed  to  the  point  of  bamboozling  or 
worrying  the  guests  out  of  petty  extras  at  every  turn 
is  that  each  year  there  is  an  emigration  of  European 
waiters  to  America  to  get  places  in  hotels  taken  by 
European  managers,  who,  depending  upon  their  ser- 
vants to  work  the  system  at  its  worst  for  the  guests, 
can  make  a  business  pay  both  manager  and  landlord 

266 


NUISANCES    OF    EUROPEAN    TRAVEL 

where  an  American  manager,  paying  wages,  would 
fail.  While  shopkeepers  have  in  the  course  of  time 
been  forced  to  adopt  the  one-price  system,  the  drift 
in  the  hotel  business  has  been  continuously  away 
from  the  per  diem  rate.  Another  point — the  big 
tourist  agencies  for  European  travel  are  certainly  in 
some  sort  of  partnership  with  the  hotels  for  which 
they  sell  coupon  tickets.  Those  on  the  inside  of  the 
hotel  business  in  Europe  know  that  these  hotels  are 
patronized  largely  by  Americans,  spendthrifts  on  their 
trip,  staying  a  few  days  at  a  time  and  usually  speaking 
English  only,  and  therefore  disinclined  to  hunt  up 
stopping-places  for  themselves.  Hence  at  such  hotels 
there  is  a  harvest  for  everybody  —  a  situation  which 
eventually  leads  to  bad  food,  bad  cooking,  bad  serv- 
ice, and  a  hold-up  at  every  turn  of  the  guest/' 

In  going  over  the  possible  methods  of  a  change  for 
the  better  in  this  sorry  business,  my  waiter  friend  said 
that  first  of  all  he  believed  that  a  big  trade  union  must 
be  formed  of  hotel  help.  Tipping  must  give  way  to 
fair  wages.  The  public  could  give  its  share  of  assist- 
ance. He  recommended  that  guests  at  either  hotels 
or  restaurants  should  follow  these  rules,  notes  of  which 
were  taken  on  the  spot:  " Patronize,  whenever  pos- 
sible, the  hotels  and  eating-houses  where  tips  are 
forbidden;  there  are  such  places  in  England  and  on 
the  Continent.  Refuse  importunities  for  tips,  either 
through  words  or  'hanging  around/  where  there  has 
been  no  service.  Where,  for  your  own  comfort,  you 
feel  constrained  to  tip,  give  the  bare  minimum.  When- 
ever possible,  do  not  tip  at  all."  He  added,  and  I  felt 

267 


LABOR    IN    EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

that  he  had  me  also  in  mind:  "Some  easy-natured 
people  believe  they  tip  the  nearest  itching  palm  to 
them  because  of  their  sympathy  with  the  poor.  Re- 
flection should  teach  them  that  there  can  sometimes 
be  real  charity  without  public  demonstration."  True. 
Church  people  might,  with  this  purpose,  give  through 
their  own  congregational  agencies.  In  London,  the 
American  traveller,  wishing  to  do  the  best  with  his 
withheld  tip-appropriation,  might  send  it  to  the  West- 
minster Children's  Aid  Society;  in  Rome,  to  the  So- 
ciety for  the  Prevention  of  Cruelty  to  Animals;  in 
Berlin,  to  the  semi-public  lodging-houses.  Every- 
where, trade-unionists  can  always  give  first  to  the 
genuine  and  pressing  claims  of  their  own  organiza- 
tions. But,  of  course,  if  the  tipper  gives,  not  from 
motives  of  good-heart edness,  but  mere  vanity,  all  ad- 
vice is  thrown  away  on  him.  The  hotel-keeper  will 
continue  growing  rich  on  him  and  despising  him. 
Other  folks  in  Europe  may  have  good  reason  to  tell 
him,  what  a  plain-spoken  Swiss  citizen  told  a  friend 
of  mine:  "You  Americans,  with  your  dirty  dollars, 
are  ruining  my  country." 

While  it  is  true  that  through  organization  the 
workers  may  be  a  factor  in  reforming  the  worst  abuses 
in  the  European  business  of  catering  to  the  traveller 
as  he  eats  and  sleeps,  I  do  not  see  how  any  human 
agency  may  soon  improve  his  condition  as  he  actually 
travels.  The  European  railway  system  must  cer- 
tainly be  regarded  by  every  American  as  in  almost 
every  respect  an  example  of  "how  not  to  do  it,"  ex- 
cept that  it  gets  you  finally  to  your  destination.  One 

268 


NUISANCES   OF    EUROPEAN    TRAVEL 

of  the  very  least  of  its  drawbacks  is  the  general  bribery 
of  guards  or  conductors.  The  whole  system,  started 
wrong,  has  gone  on  keeping  wrong. 

The  ordinary  Continental  European  passenger-car, 
reminding  Americans  of  one  of  Barnum's  menagerie 
vans  in  size  and  build,  has  a  half-dozen  compartments 
like  dog  -  kennels,  the  first  and  second  class  slightly 
varied  in  upholstery,  and  the  third  usually  having  only 
bare  boards.  To  get  in  or  out  of  a  car,  except  from 
the  larger  station  high  platforms,  is  a  steep  step-lad- 
der climb.  The  bad  air  in  a  compartment,  at  night 
especially,  when  the  Europeans  close  all  the  windows 
tight,  gives  an  American  an  experience  somewhat  like 
being  confined  in  summer  in  a  freight  box-car  in  the 
Chicago  stock-yards.  Barely  enough  cars  are  made  up 
in  a  train  at  a  main  station  to  carry  away  the  travel- 
lers who  have  bought  tickets,  another  car  or  two  often 
being  added  at  the  last  moment  to  accommodate  the 
crowd  clamoring  for  places.  At  the  big  stations  the 
porters,  knowing  all  the  tricks,  take  care  of  their  pa- 
trons through  pushing  brutally  ahead  and  reserving 
seats  by  putting  hand-baggage  on  them.  The  Amer- 
ican, puzzled  by  divisions  of  the  train  into  cars  of 
three  classes,  and  the  cars  themselves  into  compart- 
ments for  smokers,  non-smokers,  and  women  alone, 
usually  gets  left,  to  take  one  of  the  poorest  places  or 
to  stand.  Repeatedly,  in  Germany,  Austria,  Italy, 
and  France,  I  looked  on  in  amazement  at  a  train-load 
of  excited  passengers  filling  up  from  the  crowds  of  fhe 
station  platforms  and  asked  myself  if  I  was  in  a  civil- 
ized country.  After  the  start,  wrangling  over  seats 

269 


LABOR    IN    EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

and  overhead  rack-room  for  hand-baggage  was  a  com- 
mon occurrence.  Trunks  usually  costing  extra,  the 
size  of  the  ordinary  bag  in  Europe  is  double  that  car- 
ried in  America,  and  the  sight  of  two  large  racks  in  a 
compartment  charged  up  to  the  roof  with  valises,  suit- 
cases, bandboxes,  rugs,  and  parcels,  puts  the  Amer- 
ican tourist  in  a  state  of  fear  lest  things  fall  and  crash 
on  his  head.  It  was  to  be  noticed  that  military  officers 
had  valises  that  were  really  trunks  carried  into  the 
compartments,  and — against  the  law — placed  on  the 
floor  between  the  two  benches.  At  night  there  is  but 
one  dim  light  to  a  compartment,  so  reading  is  not 
ordinarily  possible.  No  drinking-water  is  to  be  had. 
The  baggage-check  is  unknown  in  any  country  in 
which  I  travelled  in  Europe.  No  announcement  is 
made  of  the  station  which  the  train  is  approaching. 
Our  party  paid  twelve  dollars  for  extra  weight  of  bag- 
gage from  Paris  to  Amsterdam,  though  our  trunks 
were  few.  Besides,  the  stings  of  the  various  railroad 
mosquitoes  were  so  numerous  that  throughout  our 
long  journeys  we  were  smarting  from  them  or  listening 
to  the  tales  of  other  travellers  as  they  indignantly 
or  humorously  described  their  bites,  new  and  old. 

The  much-talked-of  low  fares  of  European  railroads 
apply  to  slow  third-class  travel  without  baggage  and 
not  counting  the  petty  charges  and  tips  squeezed  out 
of  the  passengers.  First-class  tickets  are  just  about 
double  our  express  rates,  day  coach.  Fast  trains  of 
any  kind  are  in  most  countries  infrequent. 

One  of  the  nuisances  of  European  travel  is  customs 
examinations.  I  have  passed  three  in  one  day.  In 

270 


NUISANCES    OF    EUROPEAN    TRAVEL 

some  countries  the  traveller  is  halted  on  leaving  the 
station  in  a  town  or  city  and  questioned  about  the 
contents  of  his  hand-baggage,  the  European  munici- 
pality itself  in  many  instances  having  its  own  tax 
on  incoming  goods  from  any  other  part  of  the  same 
country.  Customs  officers  have  at  midnight  sud- 
denly entered  the  sleeping-compartments  of  the  pas- 
sengers on  the  train  in  which  I  was  travelling,  includ- 
ing my  own,  not  stopping  to  knock  even  at  the  ladies' 
rooms.  The  European  sleeping-car,  by  the  way,  has 
its  berths  running  crosswise  and  not  lengthwise,  with 
board  partitions  between  the  compartments.  The 
dancing  of  the  train  on  the  tracks,  like  that  of  a  spring- 
less  wagon  on  cobblestones,  of  itself  would  prevent 
sleep,  and  when  to  this  the  almost  total  lack  of  ventila- 
tion is  added  the  night  becomes  one  of  horror.  On 
my  final  trip  to  Italy  my  companion  and  myself  sat 
up  three  full  nights  in  preference  to  taking  to  the 
sleeping-car.  As  to  the  customs  "visits"  at  frontiers, 
I  was  called  on  to  submit  to  a  score  of  them.  Usually 
they  were  perfunctory,  though  on  several  occasions 
the  officials  were  rough  and  overbearing.  On  no  oc- 
casion was  our  party  treated  with  greater  considera- 
tion than  when  we  landed  at  New  York  on  our  home- 
coming. 

When  the  topic  of  railroads  is  up  the  European 
always  has  one  trump  card  to  play  against  the  Amer- 
ican— safety.  When  asked  for  particulars  he  refers 
to  the  incontestable  fact  that  the  European  news- 
papers frequently  contain  despatches  describing  rail- 
way accidents  in  America.  If  my  readers  will  pardon 

271 


LABOR    IN    EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

a  slight  digression  at  this  point,  I  may  say  that  much 
of  the  news  from  America  printed  in  the  European 
Press  is  a  reflection  of  the  demand  existing  in  those 
circles  which  wish  the  people  of  the  United  States  to 
be  represented  as  crude,  vulgar,  ridiculous,  or  blood- 
thirsty.    The  big  railway  accident  is  consequently 
presented  in  its  horrors  on  every  possible  occasion. 
When  the  investigator  of  the  subject  really  gets  down 
to  the  statistics,  the  United  States  does  not  make  so 
bad  a  showing  in  all  particulars  on  this  question.     I 
take  this  passage  from  a  current  railroad  authority: 
"Last  year  316  of  the  American  companies,  operating 
124,050  miles,  killed  no  passengers  in  a  train  accident. 
That  mileage  is  greater  than  the  combined  mileage  of 
England,  France,  Germany,  Austria,  Hungary,  and 
Italy.     The  passenger  mileage  of  these  roads  exceeds 
by  a  billion  the  enormous  British  passenger  mileage. 
Their  freight  mileage  exceeds  all  Europe's,  with  Japan, 
Argentine,  and  Australia  added."     Most  of  the  acci- 
dents in  America  take  place  on  the  poorer  half  of  the 
railroads,  and  a  very  large  proportion  of  the  deaths 
are  of  tramps,  who  in  Europe  generally  are  not  al- 
lowed on  the  tracks.    The  great  wrong  —  aye,  the 
crime  committed  by  our  railroads — is  not  to  the  pas- 
sengers, but  to  the  immense  numbers  of  employes  in- 
jured, maimed,  and  killed.     It  is,  indeed,  terrible  to 
read  that  ten  thousand  deaths  in  a  single  year  have 
occurred  on  the  230,000  miles  of  American  railroads 
through  accidents.     But  it  is  quite  equally  shocking 
to  read  that  on  the  23,000  miles  of  railways  in  England 
there  were  killed  in  ten  years  nearly  five  thousand 

272 


NUISANCES    OF    EUROPEAN    TRAVEL 

persons  and  more  than  thirty  thousand  injured.  In 
travelling  on  the  main  lines  in  America  one  is  just  as 
safe  as  on  any  European  railway,  while  as  to  the  de- 
cencies, freedom  from  annoyances,  the  enjoyment  of 
conveniencies  and  comforts,  the  American  system  is 
immeasurably  the  superior. 

18 


OLD  AND  NEW   WORLD  CONTRASTS 

WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  November  30,  1909. 

AMERICAN  travellers  abroad  comment  frequently  on 
the  difference  between  the  Old  World  and  the  New  in 
social  and  political  "atmosphere."  If  this  quality  in- 
terprets itself  through  the  topics  up  for  popular  dis- 
cussion, the  way  they  are  debated  and  the  means  by 
which  governing  opinion  brings  about  common  action, 
it  must  be  said  that  especially  the  "atmosphere"  of 
the  labor  and  social  reform  movement  in  Europe 
differs  widely  from  that  in  America.  Conditions  of 
organization,  suffrage,  rights,  legal  standing,  educa- 
tion, nationality,  and  standards  of  living  differ.  Nec- 
essarily distinctive  proposals  for  immediate  changes 
characterize  each  European  country.  But,  apart 
from  these,  certain  sentiments  and  ideas  affecting  us 
but  little  in  America  play  a  highly  important  part  in 
the  general  unrest  of  Europe. 

First  to  be  noted  is  the  extent  to  which  the  anti- 
war feeling  prevails  among  the  working-classes.  There 
is,  of. course,  growing  anti-war  talk  among  our  own 
people.  But,  as  responded  to  by  our  working-classes 
in  general,  the  sentiment  manifests  itself  as  a  prin- 
ciple and  as  an  expression  of  sympathy  with  our 
brothers  abroad  rather  than  the  announcement  of 

274 


OLD    AND    NEW    WORLD    CONTRASTS 

a  settled  determination  to  oppose  war  at  all  haz- 
ards. 

In  Europe  ant i -militarism  signifies  a  challenge  to 
governments  by  the  workers,  a  defiance  by  them  of 
the  classes  that  stand  to  win  much  and  lose  little  by 
the  killing  of  thousands  of  common  soldiers  in  battle, 
and  a  deep-seated  resolve  to  refuse  to  take  the  last 
step  in  what  is  termed  "military  duty" — that  is,  for 
one  set  of  laborers  to  shoot  down  on  the  field  of  car- 
nage other  equally  well-meaning  and  simple-minded 
toilers  between  whom  and  themselves  there  should 
exist  in  this  age  of  awakened  conscience  and  general 
enlightenment  a  fraternity  strengthened  by  a  com- 
mon suffering.  Were  we  in  America  to  believe  what 
mention  is  occasionally  made  in  our  European  Press 
despatches  on  the  subject,  a  few  fanatics,  such  as 
Herve  among  the  French  is  depicted,  are  responsible 
for  an  unwarranted  denunciation  of  war  and  mili- 
tarism. But  while  Herve  and  his  kind  may  provide 
the  "strong-story  stuff"  for  reporters'  lively  pens,  to 
amuse  shallow  readers  thousands  of  miles  away  from 
the  theatre  of  the  agitation,  the  master  players  at 
the  game  of  statesmanship  who  stand  ready  to  plunge 
the  nations  into  the  frightful  arena  of  slaughter  know 
full  well  that  their  next  order  "To  the  front!"  is  to 
be  followed  immediately  by  demonstrations  for  peace 
on  the  part  of  the  masses  of  the  countries  involved 
that  will  mark  a  new  era  in  the  annals  of  Europe. 

To  appreciate  what  may  happen  in  regard  to  this,  we 
on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic  must  realize  that  all  Eu- 
rope at  every  moment  is  actually  at  war.  And  this 

275 


LABOR    IN    EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

has  been  the  case  permanently  during  the  life  of  every 
man  of  the  present  generation.  A  "class,"  made  up 
of  all  the  able-bodied  youths  of  twenty  years,  goes, 
by  force,  into  the  armies  of  the  nations  every  year. 
The  most  completely  and  surely  successful  business 
undertakings  in  all  European  countries  are  those 
which  provide  war  material — guns,  ships,  accoutre- 
ments, provisions.  The  dominant  social  and  political 
element  has  as  its  backbone  the  army  officers  whose 
trade  is  to  obey,  either  in  defence  or  aggression.  The 
war  is  on  continually  —  up  to  the  point  of  beginning 
the  killing.  Society's  pulse  indicating  the  effects  of 
this  warfare  is  in  the  stock-exchange.  From  this  fact 
arises  the  importance  of  every  Press  mention  of  the 
"alliances,"  the  movements  of  the  crowned  heads,  the 
speeches  of  prime  ministers,  the  avowals  of  high  army 
officers,  the  international  "incidents,"  many  bits  of 
news  which  to  the  average  American  have  little  im- 
portance. To  the  subject  of  any  country  in  Europe 
items  of  this  character  may  signify  coming  success  or 
failure,  joy  or  sorrow.  His  business,  in  which  his  all 
is  invested,  may  soon  be  in  danger  of  being  wiped  out ; 
his  boy,  who  is  in  the  army,  may  in  a  few  weeks  be  sent 
to  his  death  on  the  battle-field.  To  the  great  masses  of 
the  nations,  the  wage  earners,  this  situation  of  inces- 
sant and  senseless  hostility  has  become  intolerable. 
They  intend  to  resist  stubbornly  any  reckless  heads 
of  State  that  may  set  out  to  employ  them  as  mere 
counters  in  a  clash  of  force  over  questions  which  are 
alien  to  their  own  great  interest  in  social  justice. 
On  this  point,  "The  working-man  has  no  country." 

276 


OLD    AND    NEW    WORLD    CONTRASTS 

Every  one  of  the  international  congresses  of  the 
various  trade  unions  and  other  working-class  organ- 
izations performs  a  service  to  humanity  in  suppressing 
hatred  and  promoting  brotherhood  among  the  peoples 
and  races  who  speak  different  tongues.  Once  that 
Engelmann,  Preatoni,  Desjardins,  Smith,  Kravatski, 
Van  Waerts,  and  Savdos,  representing  internationally 
organized  workers,  either  of  a  single  calling  or  of  many, 
have  met  in  one  of  the  industrial  cities  of  the  Conti- 
nent, discussed  their  common  causes  and  broken 
bread,  they  will  forever  refuse  to  kill  one  another 
merely  because  authority  has  put  them  in  different 
uniforms.  And  the  spirit  of  this  refusal  will  spread 
among  all  the  organized  workers  in  their  own  coun- 
tries who  have  heard  their  anti-war  reports  on  return- 
ing home.  Further,  all  the  workers,  even  the  unor- 
ganized, will  read  of  what  is  thus  passing  and  yearn 
for  news  of  peace,  instead  of  responding  to  the  con- 
tinual transparently  selfish  and  cruel  appeals  to  a 
patriotism  too  often  a  composite  of  the  self-interests 
of  politicians  and  of  popular  superstitions  as  to  the 
wickedness  of  hated  foreigners. 

Not  only  the  laboring-classes,  but  many  men  of 
means  and  superior  education  who  have  their  place 
in  the  scheme  of  production  in  our  present  industrial 
organism,  are  to-day  decrying  war  and  boldly  ad- 
vocating radical  expression  against  its  possibility. 
During  my  tour  I  heard  many  men  of  this  social  class 
freely  expressing  such  sentiments.  "The  war  spark, 
which  may  burst  into  a  flame,"  said  one  to  me,  "is 
always  to  be  seen  somewhere — in  Morocco,  Armenia, 

277 


LABOR    IN    EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

the  Balkans,  in  the  movements  of  the  British  navy. 
I  believe  there  would  have  been  war  in  Europe  within 
the  last  five  years,  under  one  pretext  or  another,  had 
not  the  rulers  known  that  there  is  a  startling  revela- 
tion awaiting  the  world  from  the  working-classes  in 
all  European  countries  the  day  any  one  of  the  great 
powers  begins  hostilities  with  another." 

Never  was  I  more  affected  by  the  spectacle  at  any 
gathering  than  when  in  Paris  two  months  ago  at  a 
mass-meeting  nearly  five  thousand  persons  enthusias- 
tically applauded  German,  Italian,  English,  Spanish, 
Dutch,  and  Hungarian  labor  representatives  as  they 
in  unmeasured  terms  denounced  international  war  and 
emphatically  supported  anti-war  resolutions.  Indeed, 
it  is  the  general  consensus  of  opinion  that  the  final 
obstacle  to  a  war  of  nations  in  Europe  to-day  is  the 
determined  adverse  attitude  of  the  workers  in  the 
different  countries. 

Another  phase  of  the  working-class  movement  in 
Europe  but  little  understood  in  America  is  that  which 
the  European  press  agencies  in  collusion  have  decided 
to  term  Anarchistic,  while  the  fact  is  that  revolu- 
tionary State  Socialism  presents  much  the  same  pro- 
gram. No  description  of  the  present  situation  in 
Europe  comes  up  to  the  truth  which  ignores  the  de- 
gree to  which  the  revolutionary  sentiment  has  hold  of 
large  numbers  in  nearly  every  country.  The  execu- 
tion of  Francesco  Ferrer  served  to  make  newspaper- 
reading  Americans  who  had  theretofore  known  little 
or  nothing  about  it  acquainted  with  the  teachings  of 
this  form  of  Socialism.  Off  hand,  according  to  their 

278 


OLD    AND    NEW    WORLD    CONTRASTS 

habit,  the  European  contributors  to  our  Press  are  pre- 
pared to  repeat  to  their  readers  that  Anarchistic  revo- 
lutionists are  to  be  found  only  in  France,  Italy,  and 
Spain.  The  fact  is,  whether  under  a  change  of  name  \ 
or  not,  a  large  part  of  the  "educated  proletariat"  in 
Germany,  Austria,  Switzerland,  and  even  England, 
is  permeated  with  the  essence  of  the  teaching  that 
since  the  laws  of  monarchies  at  present  are  the  out- 
come of  force  exercised  by  the  shrewd  and  operated 
through  vested  privileges  and  vulgar  prejudices  and 
superstitions,  each  individual,  instead  of  obeying  the 
resultant  hodge-podge  of  statutes,  is  free  to  follow  his  / 
own  ideals  of  morality  or  citizenship.  This  thought 
is  obvious  in  the  writings  of  several  of  the  most  popu- 
lar German  and  British  authors  of  the  type  of  Shaw  • 
in  England,  a  fact  the  insidious  potency  of  which  our 
own  newspaper  readers  have  been  slow  to  recognize. 
They  have  long  known,  however — those  who,  to  any 
extent,  follow  this  line  of  study — that  a  great  deal  of 
literature  current  in  the  Latin  countries  abounds  in 
such  doctrines.  The  philosophy  on  which  State  So- 
cialism is  grounded — the  inevitable  development  of 
capitalism  in  every  industry  to  the  point  at  which 
"the  wage  system  must  be  abandoned" — is  countered 
by  that  other  philosophy  which  teaches  that  every  one 
who  has  courage  enough  and  intelligence  enough  may 
at  once,  in  the  present  stage  of  social  progress,  clear 
away  sufficient  of  the  hurtful  effects  of  capitalism 
to  permit  for  himself  an  independent  course.  "The 
majority  has  no  more  rights  than  the  minority,  the 
millions  no  greater  rights  than  one."  This  is  one  of 

279 


LABOR    IN    EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

the  doctrines  enunciated.  The  most  active  strikers  of 
southern  Italy  have  been  led  by  men  professing  such 
principles  and  calling  themselves  "extreme  individ- 
ualists/' Congresses  of  the  same  order  of  revolu- 
tionists have  been  recently  held  in  Germany,  Holland, 
and  Switzerland.  From  them  come  teachings  such  as 
have  actuated  the  Barcelona  wing  of  the  Spanish  revo- 
lutionists. In  France  the  men  at  the  head  of  the 
"C.  G.  T."  (Confederation  Generate  du  Travail)  are 
following  in  their  practice  the  chief  principle  of  this 
school,  known  as  "direct  action."  Yvetot,  in  his 
1  'A.  B.  C.  Syndicaliste, "  says :  * '  Direct  action  consists 
in  making  the  employer  give  way  through  fear  or  his 
interest."  While  preaching  the  general  strike,  this 
leader  commends  the  individual  strike,  every  person 
being  free  to  decide  upon  the  limits  of  his  own  activi- 
ties. "Le  sabotage"  which  in  Great  Britain  is  known 
as  "ca*  canny" — the  employe  neglecting  his  em- 
ployer's interests  systematically  while  pretending  to 
be  at  work — is  one  of  the  forms  of  direct  action. 
Nothing  could  better  illustrate  the  difference  in  spirit 
between  the  American  and  the  Continental  European 
working-men  than  this  practice,  which  I  have  never 
known  to  be  even  tacitly  recognized  by  any  body  of 
wage  workers  in  America — except  in  instances,  office- 
holders. One  of  Yvetot's  amusing  examples  of  le  sa- 
botage is  this :  "A  salesman  in  a  shop  could  give  exact 
and  full  measure  in  selling  a  piece  of  goods  instead 
of  short  measure,  as  his  employer  would  have  him 
do."  The  leaders  of  this  division  of  the  mass  of 
workers  in  Europe  in  revolt  assert  that  through  their 

280 


OLD    AND    NEW    WORLD    CONTRASTS 

multiplicity  of  small  strikes,  their  ''sabotage''  their 
anti-military  campaign,  their  street  agitation,  then- 
repetition  at  attempts  at  a  general  strike — which  on 
several  occasions  in  different  countries  have  been  fol- 
lowed by  great  changes  in  the  franchise  as  well  as  in 
economic  respects — they  will  worry  from  society  more 
benefits  to  the  workers  than  can  possibly  come  from 
parliamentary  Socialism.  They  assert  that  while  they 
have  been  abstaining  from  voting,  but  incessantly 
stirring  up  discontent,  often  manifested  in  bold  illus- 
'trations  of  their  direct  action,  they  have  been  the  main 
factors  in  forcing  from  employers  a  shorter  workday 
and  from  governments  the  weekly  rest  day,  which 
all  the  talking  and  bill-introducing  in  a  generation  by 
Socialist  members  of  the  various  parliaments  had 
failed  to  do.  They  consider  the  eight-hour  day,  ren- 
dering self-education  and  improved  physical  condi- 
tion possible  to  the  workers,  worth  more  than  all  the 
pension,  sick  fund,  or  charitable  schemes  instituted 
through  government. 

A  phase  of  the  European  movement  not  possible 
among  us  is  shown  in  the  importance  accorded  to 
" intellectuals."  This  is  explainable  in  part  by  the 
illiteracy  of  the  lower  stratum  of  many  Continental 
European  laborers,  especially  in  southern  Italy,  Spain, 
Austria,  and  Hungary,  and  in  part  by  the  start  given 
to  the  political  movement  of  the  masses  on  the  Con- 
tinent before  the  day  of  trade-unionism.  When  I 
asked  in  Italy:  "How  is  it  that  such  strikes  as  you 
have  just  described  to  me  were  led  by  college  men  or 
others  not  of  the  occupation  engaged  ? "  the  reply  was : 

281 


? 


LABOR    IN    EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

"The  strikers  were  too  ignorant  to  organize  them- 
selves and  negotiate  with  their  employers . "  In  north- 
ern Italy  and  Austria  what  trade-unionism  there  is 
has  been  mostly  developed  out  of  the  political  party, 
the  old-time  leaders  more  or  less  holding  to  their 
places. 

In  Germany  some  of  the  bookwriters  and  "Herr 
Professors"  are  still  parliamentary  leaders,  but  the 
trade  unions  are  officered,  led,  and  in  many  cases  rep- 
resented in  the  Reichstag,  by  men  from  their  own 
ranks.  The  considerable  corps  of  secretaries  of  semi- 
public  semi-philanthropic  bodies  do  much  writing  on 
social  subjects,  a  great  part  of  it  necessarily  favorable 
to  unions.  In  England,  Sidney  Webb,  for  example, 
has  a  place  in  the  esteem  of  labor  leaders  on  account 
of  the  historic  value  of  his  works  on  labor,  but  politi- 
cally their  support  of  him  has  been  weak.  It  would  be 
difficult  in  this  country  for  any  writer  on  the  subject 
to  attract  the  attention  Webb  once  did  in  England, 
perhaps  because,  owing  to  the  youth  of  our  national 
existence,  the  same  need  for  such  work  does  not  here 
exist.  That  the  '  *  intellectuals ' '  find  less  play  for  their 
r61e  as  the  level  of  education  moves  upward  is  shown 
by  the  fact  that  the  best  labor  organizations  are  in- 
variably officered  and  led  by  members  of  their  own 
ranks.  In  general  the  "intellectual"  as  a  leader  oc- 
cupies a  dubious  position  in  the  eyes  of  his  constituents 
as  well  as  the  general  public.  He  may  be  sincere  and 
disinterested,  no  doubt  he  often  is,  and  he  may  be 
doing  some  commendable  work,  but  he  knows  his  kind 
is  to  be  tolerated  by  the  rank  and  file  only  so  long  as 

282 


OLD    AND    NEW    WORLD    CONTRASTS 

no  one  among  themselves  can  be  found  to  replace  him, 
while  the  intellectuals  not  in  the  unions  or  radical 
organizations  have  little  for  him  but  bitter  criticism. 
Said  a  university  professor  to  me:  "You  will  observe 
that  the  intellectuals  are  nearly  all  in  politics  as  labor 
representatives;  rarely  will  you  find  them  advising 
true  trade-unionism,  for  then  they  would  be  person- 
ally shunted  off  from  a  coveted  career.  I  have  re- 
peatedly seen  such  men  elected  by  the  working-classes 
as  legislators,  whence  they  got  themselves  into  ad- 
ministrative places,  only  to  find  an  excuse  some  day 
for  going  over  to  another  party." 

The  idea  of  a  crusade  springing  from  the  doctrines 
of  a  "savior  of  society"  is  to  some  extent  yet  fostered 
on  the  European  Continent  at  the  big  mixed  head- 
quarters of  "the  party,"  the  voluntary  co-operative 
societies  and  the  unions.  It  usually  finds  visual  ex- 
pression in  a  portrait  of  Marx  on  the  wall,  perhaps 
flanked  by  others — in  Germany,  Lassalle;  in  France, 
Louis  Blanc;  in  Italy,  Mazzini  —  together  with  local 
philosophers  or  poets  having  a  place  in  the  hearts  of 
the  people.  But  everywhere  I  found  the  leaders  at 
headquarters  occupied,  not  with  speculative  philoso- 
phies, but  the  live  questions  of  the  hour.  They  wanted 
representatives  in  Parliament  to  fight  for  certain 
needed  rights  or  the  practical  measures  immediately 
demanded  by  the  masses.  They  were  agitating  fair 
play  for  their  co-operative  ventures,  or  aid  for  locked- 
out  thousands  in  an  industry,  or  measures  for  schools, 
for  women,  for  the  children.  Several  times  I  opened 
up  the  subject  of  the  workableness  of  the  "Co-opera- 

283 


LABOR    IN    EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

tive  State,"  the  possible  undesirability  of  the  total 
overthrow  of  the  present  social  system,  or  the  com- 
ing catastrophe  to  capitalism.  Of  course  every  one 
knew  the  litany,  sermon,  and  invocation  for  this  So- 
cialist text,  to  be  repeated  in  public  speech-making, 
but  face  to  face  individually  in  conversation  the  whole 
subject  faded  away  to  the  misty  realms  of  the  imagin- 
ation. Positively,  I  never  found  one  man  in  my  trip 
ready  to  go  further  into  constructive  Socialism  than 
to  repeat  perfunctorily  its  time-worn  generalities.  On 
the  other  hand,  I  met  men  whom  I  knew  years  ago, 
either  personally  or  through  correspondence  or  by 
their  work,  as  active  propagandists  of  the  Socialists' 
theoretical  creed,  who  are  now  devoting  their  energies 
to  one  or  the  other  practical  forms  of  social  better- 
ment— trade-unionism,  co-operation,  legal  protection 
to  the  workers — and  who  could  not  be  moved  to  speak 
of  utopianism. 

Certain  other  phases  of  social  agitation  different 
from  our  American  movement  arose,  as  I  have  pointed 
out,  from  emigration  and  its  causes,  from  unemploy- 
ment, from  voluntary  co-operation,  from  regarding 
the  position  of  wage  workers  as  lifelong,  from  the 
political  privileges  of  the  "upper  classes"  or  from 
a  rudimentary  national  economic  development,  as  in 
Austria,  Hungary,  and  southern  Italy. 

It  is  only  on  looking  broadly  at  the  land  question 
in  European  countries  that  the  American  can  appre- 
ciate the  land  policy  of  the  United  States,  for  we  have 
had  a  consistent  underlying  principle  in  our  policy  as 
applied  not  only  to  Government  lands,  but  to  our 

284 


OLD    AND    NEW    WORLD    CONTRASTS 

methods  of  eminent  domain  and  taxation  —  namely, 
that  the  people  are  to  share  in  all  the  benefits.  In 
no  European  country  are  the  " crown  lands"  open  to 
a  homestead  law.  The  abuses  of  a  mistaken  land 
policy,  with  enormous  holdings  in  the  hands  of  a  few, 
are  evident  in  Hungary,  Austria,  England,  and  Italy. 
The  people  are  aroused  on  this  question  in  Italy,  where 
cultivation  of  land  within  a  certain  area  about  Rome 
is  now  compulsory,  and  in  England,  where  a  small 
proportion  of  the  unearned  increment  is  proposed  to 
be  taken  through  the  budget  taxation,  in  part  from 
lands  not  hitherto  taxed  at  all.  The  working-men  all 
over  Europe  point  to  Switzerland  and  France,  where 
the  inheritance  laws  keep  the  land  subdivided,  and 
say  there  is  no  emigration  from  these  countries.  In 
fact,  as  compared  with  Great  Britain,  France  has  little 
unemployment.  The  land  problems  are  always  men- 
tioned by  Europe's  leading  labor  men  when  talking 
about  coming  economic  changes. 

Circumstances  constrained  me  to  take  notice,  day 
by  day,  of  one  characteristic  of  Europeans  in  general. 
It  was  their  ignorance  of  America.  Not  one  man  in 
ten  of  any  walk  of  life  among  those  I  met  had  the 
United  States  point  of  view  regarding  America  on 
any  subject.  Many  were  generous  in  their  senti- 
ments toward  us,  but  knowledge  of  us  they  had 
little.  Geographically,  politically,  industrially,  social- 
ly—  they  saw  us  only  as  in  convex  or  concave 
mirrors. 

As  others  might  long  for  heaven,  large  numbers  of 
the  working-classes  of  Europe  sigh  to  get  to  America, 

285 


LABOR    IN    EUROPE    AND    AMERICA 

"land  of  riches,  land  of  liberty,  land  of  freedom  in 
thought,  land  of  education;  land  of  joy,  peace,  and 
uninterrupted  family  happiness,  since  the  nightmare 
of  the  army  has  there  no  existence."  The  pessimist 
school  of  revolutionists,  on  the  other  hand,  depict  our 
trust  "magnates"  as  monsters  "sucking  the  life- 
blood"  of  their  "slaves,"  and  declare  that  the  work- 
ing-people are  commonly  groaning  under  the  dire 
consequences  of  the  "iron  law  of  wages,"  except 
the  trade-unionists,  who  they  say  form  an  "aristoc- 
racy of  labor"  in  unholy  alliance  with  "cannibalistic 
capital." 

Vln  Naples  a  story  bordering  on  the  grotesque  was 
told  of  a  certain  emigration  agent,  who,  in  the  old 
days  when  such  a  thing  was  possible,  on  hearing,  just 
before  a  vessel  steamed  off  for  'America?  that  the 
emigrants  to  whom  he  had  sold  passage  were  excited 
upon  rinding  that  some  of  their  tickets  were  for  one 
point  in  "America "  and  some  for  another,  went  among 
them  and  gave  those  bound  for  New  York  ten  cents 
each  to  pay  "their  street-car  fare"  to  New  York  from 
Buenos  Ayres,  whither  the  vessel  was  bound.  Whether 
or  not  this  could  be  possible,  very  few  persons  whom 
I  met  seemed  capable  of  making  any  more  distinction 
between  North  America  and  South  America  than  we 
ourselves  can  between  Afghanistan  and  Baluchis- 
tan. 

The  Old  World  is  not  our  world.  Its  social  prob- 
lems, its  economic  philosophies,  its  current  political 
questions  are  not  linked  up  with  America.  All  the 
people  of  the  globe  may  be  on  the  broad  highway  to 

286 


OLD    AND    NEW    WORLD    CONTRASTS 

social  justice,  peace  among  men  of  all  tongues,  and 
universal  brotherhood,  but  all  the  nations  and  govern- 
ments have  not  reached  the  same  points  on  the  road. 
In  the  procession,  America  is  first. 


THE    END 


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